















































































































































































































































































































r, V , o N (, -^ji “ * , o v 6 ^ 

■p _^sw, y 'p j'Jv V 'J) 





^ * <y rV ^ ' .V- 

^ ^ ^ ’V ” ’ ^ "..O'^^c oj^'^ • ‘ ' ' '/ . 

, \ ^ .:^-jy'. 

o C\ r-i •> i 



vy ^ U 

* 'I -/► 

.- , . S}-^^ ^ 

9/. ^ 0 N 0 " A<^ 

V C‘ ^ X * o , 

* A'^' ^ ,f(\ S? A ^ '<c* c 








. 'A % 

‘ . ^ ^ '4 , 

V . q. .0‘ 


,p^^»~•’*'V\' 

■' a\' , 

0 c- % ^ 

- . ' V . . °l- * 3 s 0 

^ J.V ^'\^''/ C- 

I-* » \^*!Oii.''. 

,A * 




« ,a‘ 

3 

\' » ' “ " , 










! -'-ij. '0.,* ^ r- ", 

'C-' °-^ (P' 

'"■""' ■^o o'^ .° '. . 

/ •%, \^^M' 

■' > - a'’ .'Ill,'" V'\v.„, •> 

'\ ^ v. ’^^^,<^/l ''''• ■>> 

\\ ri^ f 7 Jy yL, 2 l 


l> 

o 




/I r 



'V 


^ V? v- 

p ^ c#' t> ‘ii ^ -4 siafsr 

I v'\ ''7^'^^ A 

'^- ,# -1 (A ^ v^' 


* \° <?<. " 

y* 


[ O^ s 


o ♦ f 


■'\^ \- v" 3 *V V^rff:^v v* 

. c:„ v' »'•», "> .o'^ V 

' " V .»., -p, 

'■^ ' c? 




i‘^%. ' 



/\»~ c, ^ ^ 



^ y 

OO 

1 'S^ o 4 ~Y, >• 

n* <^‘ ^ ^ ^ * 

' \^ ^ 'f * 0 / "> " ' ^ . o'^ ^ ^' 

%/ ^ 

• ^;^// A ^ ^ ^ 

I'' — 





> x^f 

7 ‘ y 'JvjvJ"' « or (J^ 

'*' •> N 0 ■ ^ - 

// c* V 'f- ^ 

^ * ^n. \\> ^ J, X .^/-y ,, 

=^ ,- ,A'' iVW.-^''^ //*? O 

^ *\^ * '^ ^ 


'' ’% =.'^' “ 

>J ^ < z 

<. A O ■/ 

» o *> a\ . I B 

^ ^ “f 0 > rV * _c~\A'\\ '/- 

V ‘p jl'' 

> *» ^\]!//Xy^ .;>* y o ^ 'f^/ V® 

o o' . "VS«» " ^ > 




' v\s..,* x^T’* ^ “ y ’ ^ 

%. „«c ,,. '1 '“•' 

CP v-»‘V'X 4 !- °o 

'>^ \ 

<. - > ^ ^ o 0 ^ 

✓* 




i/- o A * V ^ 

■%. ” 

’*v/.... /V * •'' ”' o/s s ”.!V* ° ’ v'^'X' 

*■ Iv ' 

■c/^ ^ 

















1 












HE Modern Bovs Library 


Hobbies 









































THE MODERN BOY’S LIBRARY 

SOMETHING TO MAKE 
THE OUTDOOR BOY 
THE BOY’S WORKSHOP 
HOBBIES 

Edited by Eric Wood 





Hobbies 


Edited by 

Eric Wood 


With Eight Plates and Man}) Illustrations 

in the Text 


New York 

Funk and Wagnalls Company 


'3! ISKER 

rEB 3 '*** 


• » • 


Printed in Great Britain 


EDITOR’S NOTE 


T he Modern Boy’s Library has been designed 
to include volumes on every subject in which 
the boy of to-day is interested—which means that 
eventually there will be but few subjects not dealt 
with ! For the modern boy is keen to know about 
everything that happens ; anxious to try his hand 
at the making of things ; the joy of creation is 
behind all his dreams. 

Each of the books in the Library has been written 
by men—there are nearly as many contributors as 
there are chapters !—who are experts in their own 
spheres ; and, while every endeavour has been made 
to reduce even the most intricate subjects to sim¬ 
plicity, it must be remembered that some subjects 
are not to be treated in the style suited to the men¬ 
tality of the kindergarten ; and, after all, these books 
are not intended for the kindergarten. Moreover, 
it is worth remembering that the value of books lies 
in their knowledge-giving quality. We do not read 
books merely because they are there to read ; we 
study them in order to get to know something of 
which we were ignorant before. There are many 
things in the volumes of this Library that the average 
iboy does not know ; they are here for his instruction, 
In language as simple as is possible consistent with 
kccuracy. 

/ To give something for the boy to do, to know, 
f to enjoy—that has been the threefold object behind 
the compilation of these books. 


v 





Contents 


1 . 

2 . 

3. 

4. 



Section I.—COLLECTING AS A HOBBY 

Stamp Collecting as a Hobby 

Collecting Medals . . . . . 

Coins and Crests . . . . . 

Various Collections 

i. Baxter Prints . . . . . 

ii. Some Interesting Slags 

iii. Railway Stamps . . . . . 

Section II.—OUTDOOR HOBBIES 

Woodcraft as a Hobby . . . . 

Motor-cycling as a Hobby 
Hints on Your Cycling Hobby . 

Geology as a Hobby . . . . . 

Angling ....... 

Knots for Anglers . . . . . 

Section III.—SCIENCE AS A HOBBY 

Chemical Experiments 

i. The Air .. 

ii. Wonderful Hydrogen Gas 

iii. The Chemistry of Water 

• • 

Vll 


PAGE 

9 

23 

29 

39 

40 

41 


43 

62 

85 

93 

109 

119 


127 

138 

142 





Vlll 


Contents 


2. 

3. 

1 . 

2. 

3. 

4. 

5. 

6. 

7. 

8 . 
9. 

10 . 

11 . 

12 . 


PAGE 

iv. Carbon ...... 148 

V. Carbon Dioxide—Poison Gas . . 153 

vi. Common Salt and Chlorine Gas . 158 

How TO Make Coal Gas . . . .162 

Charcoal Making at Home . . .165 

Section IV.—MISCELLANEOUS HOBBIES 


Conjuring for Boys 


• 

. 167 

Ventriloquism 


• 

. 189 

The Microscope as a Hobby 


c. 

. 201 

The Telescope as a Hobby 


» 

. 211 

IVIaking a Coal-scuttle 


• 

. 222 

About Some of The Fish—And 

AN 

Aquarium 223 

Advanced Photography 


• 

. 231 

Tricks with String 


• 

. 24"^ 

Your Dog, Your Chum 


• 

. 25? 

Running a Magazine . 


• 

. 25^ 

Poultry for Beginners 


• 

. 2 ^ 

How TO Run a Club . 


• 

. 27*^ 














Hobbies 


Section I 

COLLECTING AS A HOBBY 

STAMP COLLECTING AS A HOBBY 

TN these days, when every petty state is a stamp- 
L issuing country, it is no difficult task to become 
a stamp collector and to amass quantities of the vast 
number of postal issues that have done, and are now 
doing, duty. The way of a philatelist lies on higher 
ground. 

The novice has very little difficulty in starting a 
collection. 

Then he meets a real philatelist and brings 
out his album for admiring cornmeirt T' he will learn a 
lot of things, and if he is half-hearted in his pursuit of 
the goddess Philatelia, his disgust may cause him to 
abandon stamps at once and for ever. Should his 
enthusiasm be strong enough to bear the adverse 
.criticism passed on the jumble of specimens that he 
has brought together, he may mend his ways and 
oegin to collect and think philatelically. 

In the modern type of fixed album one’s worries, 
grow with the number of stamps. A young collector 
finds that he quickly fills the pages devoted to France, 
Germany, Great Britain and the United States. 

9 


B 


10 


Hobbies 


I went through many troubles before I arrived 
at a solution of all album difficulties—^the loose-leaf 
blank album. 

To make the loose-leaf album shown by Fig. 1, 
there are required two pieces of thick cardboard 
7| in. by 5J in., some coloured blind linen, sufficient 
white foolscap, and two paper fasteners in. long. 
Join the cardboards 1 in. apart, by gluing on a strip 
of the linen, as in Fig. 2. When dry, lay the boards 
on the remaining linen and cut a piece f in. larger all 
round, trimming off the corners, however, at an 
angle, as in Fig. 3. Glue the linen all over, and rub 
well down on the boards, turning over the edges. 
Paste two pieces of foolscap in. by 5f in. inside. 

The leaves are 7 in. by in. and are ruled, as in 
Fig. 4, the name of the country being lettered in. 
The spaces for the stamps should be IJ in. by 1 in. 
Two small slits are made in each leaf, as at a and b, 
also in one side of the cover, as seen in Fig. 3. Through 
these the paper fasteners (Fig. 5) are inserted. 
When the leaves are in, they are secured by turning 
down the fasteners, while by turning up the latter 
other leaves may be added at any time, or the 
arrangement changed at will. 

In this album there is absolutely no printed 
matter whatever ; the collecter must supply that, 
either with his pen or by buying printed and gummed 
labels bearing names of countries, issues, dates, 
values, etc. The leaves are printed with a decora¬ 
tive border enclosing a quadrille pattern of tiny 
squares formed by faint lines which cross the page 
vertically and horizontally, and offer much assistance 
in the arrangement of specimens. About eighty of 








Collecting as a Hobby ii 

these leaves are enelosed in a loose eover of eardboard 
with a flexible linen baek. The latter, together with 
the leaves, is inserted in the binder, whieh, by means 
of a hidden steel spring, clips the lot together as 
firmly as though they were glued and sewn. By 
bending back the covers of the binder the leaves are 
released without any trouble. 

The possessor of such an album is bound down 
by no limits 
of space. 

Every 
stamp i n- 
serted in the 
album should 
be, as nearly 
a s possible, 
a perfect spe- 
c i m e n. It 
should first of 
all be untorn. 

If it is a per¬ 
forated stamp 
none of the 
teeth should be missing, and if imperforate it should 
possess wide margins on at least three sides. The 
reason for this is fairly obvious ; many stamps are 
absolutely identical in appearance, save for the 
fact that some possess perforations, while others lack 
this means of separation. In the majority of cases 
the imperforate stamps are by far the most valuable, 

^ and it would be an easy matter to cut off the teeth 
of the cheaper variety and pass it off as the valuable 
stamp were it not for the fact that collectors insist 




FRANCE 

a” 

B 

e 

llll 

m 
























F,6 2 

A Loose-leaf Stamp Album 

















































12 Hobbies 

on wide margins (about of an inch) on three sides, 
so that they can be sure that the stamp never was 
perforated. 

The perfect stamp must be spotlessly clean, it 
must bear no stains, no greasy finger-prints, its 
colours must be clear and unfaded, and if it has been 
cancelled it must not carry a heavy, blotchy post¬ 
mark. 

Much may be done to restore soiled stamps to their 
pristine condition. A wad of cotton wool dipped in 
benzine will remove grease stains and many varieties 
of dirt, and will not injure the most delicate colours. 
Many old stamps, especially those printed in red, fade 
to a dingy brown, this being the result of oxidation. 
If these are painted with a solution of hydrogen 
peroxide, the original colour will gradually return. 
Creased stamps may be straightened by moistening 
the back and ironing between glazed cards. 

The majority of used stamps come to the young 
philatelist with a portion of the envelope adhering, 
and this must be removed before the specimen can be 
inserted in the album. The method adopted used to 
be to float the stamps face upward in a saucer of 
warm water, but this would be suicidal in dealing 
with many modern stamps and all modern British 
Colonials... Stamps cost very little to forge, and clever 
imitations may sell for many pounds. Not only have 
philatelists been defrauded, but governments have 
lost money through such dishonest practices. Some 
years back a common trick with the faking fraternity 
was to take the postmark out of a used stamp with 
acid and use it again. This did not affect the appear¬ 
ance of the old engraved Colonials, which could be 









Collecting as a Hobby 13 

boiled without suffering loss of colour; 
but as the Government discovered the 
fraud a change of method of printing 
was devised, and Colonial stamps are 
printed in a variety of ink that 'will 
“ run ” at the merest suspicion of 
dampness. Some are even printed 
on paper coated with a surface of 
chalk that the mere touch of a finger 
will cause to smudge, and they need a 
protective sheet of tissue paper to 
protect them from friction in the 
album. 

It would, of course, be foolish to 
soak such “fugitive” stamps in warm water, and one 
has to be very careful in removing the adherent en¬ 
velope. A piece of clean white blotting paper should 
be well damped and covered with a piece of white 
unglazed paper. On this the stamps may be laid face 
upwards and covered with a sheet of glazed paper. 
The whole should then be placed between the folds 
of a newspaper and weighted with a couple of heavy 
books. At the end of half an hour the paper at the 
back of the stamps will have absorbed sufficient 
moisture and will peel off quite 
easily, leaving the stamps almost 
dry. 

Of course, the only medium 
for inserting stamps in an album 
is the transparent mount, but 
many young collectors have but 
hazy ideas how to use it. It is a 
tiny strip of paper (measuring 



Right Way to Insert 
Stamps 


Fig. 6 

Right Way to 
Insert Stamps 















14 Hobbies i 

- — - - - ) 

1 

usually f in. by f in.) gummed on one side, and can j 
be purchased in airtight tin boxes at 6d. per 1,000. ^ 

These mounts should be creased to form a hinge, one i 
flap of which should be twice as long as the other ' 
Fig. 6). Moisten the shorter portion and press it on 
to the top of the stamp, so that the fold is as near 
as possible to the top of the stamp without showing 
above the perforations. Now slightly moisten the 
other end of the hinge at its extreme end and affix it 
to the spot chosen in the album page (Fig. 7). A stamp 
so treated may be turned over on its face (in order to j 
examine watermark) without bending the specimen or i 
injuring the perforations. The stamps may not lie I 
flat immediately they are mounted, but a night in | 
the album will put that right. Do not be tempted to I 
press them down with the finger, or damage will I 
surely result. Do not mount unused stamps near a I 
fire or in a hot room ; they curl abominably, and j 
make mounting a most difficult task. 

The only possible system for arranging the stamps 
on the album page is, of course, sequence of issue and 
order of value. I must here insist on the absolute 
necessity of a stamp catalogue to a beginner ; it is the 
only possible source from which he can derive the. 
necessary information about the order in which the ’ 
stamps appeared. 

Let us take, for instance, a simple country like 
Southern Nigeria, and see in what order we are to 1 
arrange its postal issues. Turning to our catalogue, 1 
we find it first issued stamps in 1901, and that in 1914 4 
it was united with Northern Nigeria to form the great I 
Province of Nigeria. The issue of 1901, which must 1 
come first on the album page, bears the Jubilee \ 









Collecting as a Hobby 15 

portrait of Queen Victoria, and contains nine values 
from Jd. to 10s. These will require two lines in 
the album, and will be followed by the Edwardian set 
of 1902, which is very similar in design and values. 


1598. Printed, in London by Messrs.Watcrlow. 
No Watermark. Perf. 12 to lO. 




Vz 






8 ^ 






1 / 


9 ^^ 

V- 





2 / 


5/- 


2/- 


1898. Colonial Print 

No Watermark. Ferf. ii, 




5^^ 





5^ 



3^ 


2V/ 






8' 


8‘ 


V- 


2/- 


5/- 


2 /- 


1 /- 


Fig. 8.—A Specimen Page in an Album 






















































































































































i6 


Hobbies 


An apparently identical set appeared in 1904, but 
these bear what is known as the “ multiple ” water¬ 
mark, and others possessing only a single imprint of the 
“ Crown C A.” 

In 1907 a scheme w^as devised by the Colonial 
Office by which all stamps of our possessions should 
conform to an official colour scheme (i.e. Jd. green, 
2d. grey, 4d. black and red on yellow paper, 6d. dull 
and bright purple. Is. black on green paper, etc. etc.), 
and in this year we have a set for Southern Nigeria in 
these universal colours, which must follow the 
multiple w^atermark set in the album ; and, lastly, in 
1912 we have the Georgian set, which brings the 
separate issue of the Colonies to a close. Southern 
Nigeria would be follow^ed by Northern Nigeria in the 
album, and the single set at present issued for Nigeria 
would occupy the next page and form a link between 
the neighbour Colonies. 

Unless a beginner has seen a set mounted in a 
blank album he may be somewhat at a loss to know 
how to proceed. He may insert his stamps in 
chronological order, and then, after a lapse of a few 
months, he may find that he is a little uncertain as 
to “ wdiich is which.” This difficulty is avoided by the 
majority of collectors by “ writing up ” each page as 
it is completed. At the minimum, each issue should 
be preceded by a statement of its date of issue, 
perforation, watermark and method of printing. 
Many philatelists are not content with this, but 
insert on the album a complete history of the issue 
and, in the case of irregularities, of every stamp. 
This wdll include artist, engraver, printer, paper and 
date when the issue became obsolete. 






Collecting as a Hobby 17 

A point that must not be neglected is the 
“ balance ” of stamps on a page. I have always 
noticed that a page crowded full of stamps is never so 
effective as one in which blank spaces occur. The 
blank album page will accommodate six stamps 
horizontally, and about nine vertically; but this does 
not mean that the page is to be arranged in draught¬ 
board fashion. To make my meaning clear, let us 
take, for example, the familiar pictorial set of New 
Zealand issued in 1898. These stamps were first 
printed in London by Messrs. Waterlow, and, 
later, the plates were sent to the Colony. The two 
printings may be distinguished by the different gauge 
of the perforations, of which more later. Let us 
suppose we have the following stamps (and shades) to 
insert : 

London Print: |d., |d.. Id., Id., 2d., 2d., 2jd., 
2jd., 3d., 4d., 5d., 5d., 6d., 8d., 9d., Is., Is., 2s., 
and 5s. 

Colonial Print: 2|d., 2jd., 3d., 3d., 5d., 6d., 

6d., 8d., 9d., Is., Is., 2s., 2s., and 5s. 

We have here three distinct sizes of stamps— 
normal, horizontally long, vertically long. If we 
insert these strictly in order of value, we shall get a 
most ill-balanced page, so I append a diagram that 
may help you in arranging other countries whose 
stamps are not all of the same size. 

When Great Britain placed the famous “ Penny 
Black ” in circulation in 1840 the stamps were issued 
in unbroken sheets, without other means of separa¬ 
tion than the scissors of the post-office clerk. Seven 
years later trial was made of a perforating machine 
invented by Henry Archer, which, however, proved 







•tMMiB- 

i8 Hobbies 

unpractical, and stamps with the Archer perforation 
are exceedingly rare. In 1854 another machine was 
tried which proved a complete suecess. The per¬ 
forating apparatus consisted of a horizontal row of 
needles running the entire width of the sheet, with 
short vertical rows meeting it. This machine would 
perforate the top and sides of a row of stamps at one 
operation, and the sheet was moved upward into 
position for the next row, which received its vertical 
perforation at the same time as the row above w^as 
perforated horizontally along the base. The type 
is known as the type machine, but many Colonial 
issues have been perforated by a “ single line ” 
machine, which possesses but a single horizontal row of 
pins. In such a machine it was neeessary to turn the 
sheet sideways after it had been perforated vertically, 
so that the operation could be completed. 

Other methods of separating stamps were in use in 
other countries. Rouletting is the most important 
of these. A small hand-wheel, the edge of which bore 
sharp teeth, was run along between the rows of stamps. 
This removed no paper, but made small cuts which 
enabled the stamps to be easily separated. Various 
rouletting maehines have also been in use which have 
given us the following types : 

Straight roulette-- 

Rouletted en are 

Rouletted en scie (saw tooth) /l/f/j/f/f/i 
Rouletted en serpentine 
Rouletted en points (diagonal cuts) vn 
Rouletted en losange (unjoined diagonal cuts) 
WWW 

Rouletted in half squares □□ [jq 









Collecting as a Hobby ig 

The stage at which a person begins to measure 
the perforations of his stamps marks his passing from 
the deserts and trackless wilds of mere collecting to 
the ordered and 
bounded realms of 
scientific philately. 

I have often been 
asked by young col¬ 
lectors, “ What’s the 
use of measuring per¬ 
forations ? ” Well, 
in many cases the 
size of these little 
holes is all that dis¬ 
tinguishes a rare and 
scarce issue from a 
common one. As in 
the case of the New 
Zealand pictorials, it 
enables us to pick out 
the London prints 
from the Colonial 
emissions; and it 
may, in the case of 
the tw^o-cent Ceylon 
of '1872, change the 
value of the stamp 
from £710s. to Is. 3d. 

Perforations are 
gaugedj by the num¬ 
ber that occurs in the space of two centimetres (about 
I of an inch). The actual measuring is done by means 
pf a perforation gauge, of which I give a reproduction 


pl'l 

EE5 ^ 

os 

iL 


- <5 

rm <iu 



is 

- <i> 

- <0 

IS 

rzn ^ 


— ^ 

»Ti 

1 ^ 

— 

--- O 

- - 

— 5 


9 

]\ 

llliii 


"lonsaagx.aesamaiBBnar 


20 MfUlKgTRES 












14- 

0> 


1 ty* 

3 n 

4©-® 


I2>i 0 

■B 

t © O » ^ 12 _ 

2 

n'A o 
z 

<S- 1 • 




o 

!S>i 


l5/i 


1414 






i 




saaxswmtwoz 


o 


I0>4 


9/1 


&'/i 






(a) — 


Fig. 9.— Perforation Gauge 














































































































20 


Hobbies 


(Fig. 9). To measure a stamp, the edge is placed along 
one of the spaces that seem to contain circles that will 
coincide with the perforations. If it does not the 
stamp should be moved along until the teeth exactly 
fit. The number of the space in which this occurs is the 
gauge of the perforation of the stamp. With a little 
practice stamps can be measured with great rapidity, 
and the commoner perforations, i.e. 10 to 14, can 
almost be recognized at sight. 

In looking through even the most simplified of 
stamp catalogues the beginner will be struck by the 
importance of the various kinds of paper and water¬ 
mark. The watermark is a local thinning in the 
texture of the paper, which is impressed in it while 
it is in the pulp stage. It is, of course, a safeguard 
against forgery. Many watermarks can be seen by 
holding the stamps to the light, but a much better 
way is to place them face downwards on a dark 
surface. In certain cases, notably the issues of our 
Australian Colonies, the watermark is very indistinct. 
The best method of dealing with these refractory 
specimens is to soak them in benzene and lay them 
on a smooth piece of dark-coloured American cloth. 

Many of the stamps of our Crown Colonies were 
watermarked with the device shown in Fig. 10 
(Crown Colony). In 1882 this was changed to Fig. 11 
(Crown Agents), and is the well-known “ Crown 
C A ” watermark. This, again, was changed in 1904, 
without the slightest warning, to Fig. 12, the well- 
known “ Multiple Crown C A ” now in use. The 
result of this change w^as that the dealers were 
“ caught short ” of “ Single C A ” stamps, which 
immediately soared up to tremendous prices. Many 









Collecting as a Hobby 21 

of our own Colonies had their own distinctive water¬ 
marks, most of which are quite interesting. Thus 
the Cape of Good Hope had the cabled anchor (Fig. 
13), and now incorporated into the Union of South 
Africa it displays the springbok’s head (Fig. 14). 
The old watermark for India was the elephant’s 
head (Fig. 15), which was changed to the five-pointed 
star. Possibly the queerest of the lot is the water¬ 
mark of Tonga, one of our South Pacific Possessions, 



Fig. 10 Fig. 11 Fig. 12 Fig. 13 


in the Friendly Isles. This is shown in Fig. 16, and 
represents multiple turtles ! 

The early watermark of the well-known camel 
stamps of the Sudan was the rosette, but as the 
similarity of this to the cross was said to offend the 
religious susceptibilities of some of the Arab sheikhs, 
it was changed to multiple star and crescent 
(Fig. 17). 

One really great find in the stamp world was made 
twenty years ago in Louisville, Kentucky. The 
court house was having its first spring cleaning for 
many years, and the caretakers were ordered to get 
rid of a large accumulation of odd documents and 
papers that had lain undisturbed for nearly half a 
century. Noticing that some of the papers had 




















































































































































































22 


Hobbies 


stamps attached, they set tliese on one side and con¬ 
sulted a jailer, who promised to dispose of them. 
There was little difficulty in doing so, as the find 


consisted o f the 
1845. More than 
covered, and six- 
proved to be ex¬ 
cel! t, only two 
had been pre¬ 
pair of these 
Of course, there 
finds of single rare 



St. Louis stamps of 
100 were dis- 
teen of these 
cecdingly rare 20 
copies of which 
viously known. A 
realized £1,026. 
have been many 
-a 2d. post office 
schoolboy’s album, 


stamps- 

Mauritius, discovered in a 
realized £1,200, and now graces the collection of 
His Majesty the King; a pair of two-cent rose 
circular British Guiana, dropped into the offertory 
at Christ Church, Georgetown, ffiy a lady of the 



Fig. 16 Fig. 17 


congregation realized £205 for the funds of the 
church, and was subsequently sold for £1,000. 

Just one word in conclusion. Don’t go hunting 
for finds ; they never come that way. Devote your¬ 
self to acquiring a good foundation of common stamps 
in perfect condition, and arrange these neatly and 
systematically in your album pages. 





















































































COLLECTING MEDALS 


C "COLLECTING anything must of necessity be 
^ influenced by two considerations : the dis¬ 
covery of the things themselves, and the length of 
the would-be possessor’s purse. 

To boys with strictly limited pocket-money medals 
are almost an impossibility to acquire in anything 
like quantity, but those of you who are fortunate 
enough to have generous parents, and, what is 
perhaps even better, a rich uncle or two, can make 
quite a respectable collection by way of a start; and 
few things are more interesting to look at, satisfying 
to handle, and instructive from every point of view, 
than a case of medals, especially if They have the 
ribands attached to them. 

Medals may be divided into two distinct classes ; 
those struck to commemorate celebrated people, 
important events, or some specific act of bravery, 
and those that are purely military. 

It was of the former that Addison wrote : “A 
cabinet of medals is a body of History. In fact, it 
was a kind of printing before the art was intro¬ 
duced.” 

Of those I do not propose to speak here. They 
are often works of art in themselves, and cost many 
pounds to buy, while military medals in some cases 
can be purchased for a very few shillings. 

The price is regulated by the rarity of the par¬ 
ticular medal and its state and condition. The 
state may be moderate, good, very good, fine, 

23 


24 Hobbies 

very fine, extra fine, mint state, searee, rare, 
very rare, and re-engraved. These are terms 
familiar to eolleetors and perfeetly well known to 
firms who deal in these things. 

The best and almost the only plaee to piek up 
eheap medals is, unhappily, the pawnbroker’s 
window. It is a seandalous thing that any old soldier 
should have to pawn his badges of honourable serviee, 
but it is often done, and all pawnbrokers have not 
an intimate knowledge of their value. 

I have frequently seen medals in quite good 
eondition marked up at prices ranging from two 
to five and six shillings which were worth double 
that money to the trade. 

Of course, the joy of the collector’s heart is the 
possession of a Victoria Cross, the most highly prized 
decoration in the world. Wealthy collectors tumble 
over each other when one is advertised, and some 
curious little romances of the sale-room hang round 
several of these cherished trophies. 

The late Colonel Aitkin, when a lieutenant in 
the 13th Bengal Native Infantry, won the distinction 
during the Indian Mutiny, five dates being recorded 
on the little bronze trinket; but when the day of 
the presentation arrived the Cross was not to be 
found, so one was cut out of paper for the ceremony 
until a duplicate could be prepared. 

The Colonel died in 1887, and in 1890 the original 
Cross mysteriously turned up at Sotheby’s, where 
it was sold for a hundred guineas. It had been in 
the possession of an officer in the Gurkha Rifles, 
since deceased, but no one knew how he got it. 

Another fine old Crimean artillery man, Sergeant 






Collecting as a Hobby 25 

Cambridge, lost his Cross, and was supplied with a 
diiplieate by the War OfFiee, both duplieate and 
original appearing in 1897, and passing into the 
hands of the same eollector. 

In 1909 the Cross awarded to Bugler Hawthorne, 
who sounded the advanee at the Cashmere Gate of 
Delhi, realized £108. 

The eheapest I have ever heard of was that of 
Trooper Peter Brown, C.M.R., whose Cross and 
medals were bought for twenty-five shillings at the 
Cape and presented to his old regiment; but sixty, 
seventy, and eighty guineas is no unusual priee for 
these treasured relies, so if you want a Vietoria 
Cross I am afraid you will have to save up for a 
long time. 

Of eourse, the right and proper resting-plaee for 
medals if the dead man has no sons to value them 
is the reeipient’s old corps, but if you are bent on 
collecting, keep your eye on the junk shops and pawn¬ 
brokers in your vicinity, write to dealers for their 
catalogues, and take the Exchange and Mart. Messrs. 
A. H. Baldwin, of Charing Cross, publish an excellent 
list, and Messrs. Glendining of Argyle Street, have 
frequent auction sales of both medals and coins, 
and you can learn a great deal from their catalogues. 

A good plan is to try to get a medal for each 
of our campaigns, beginning with Waterloo. A 
Waterloo medal can be had for 10s., a South African 
of the Warwicks for 3s. 6d. 

Some collectors specialize in certain directions. 

The famous Gaskell Collection, unhappily now 
dispersed, contained a specimen from every British 
and Hanoverian regiment present at Waterloo, but 

c 







Hobbies 


there has been such a rush for military medals of 
late years that this would be very difficult to do 
again. 

The first British medal for service in the field 
was a silver badge issued by Charles I in 1643, to 
be worn on the breast by every man who had dis¬ 
tinguished himself in the forlorn hope. 

The first issued to officers and men alike for a 
particular action was Cromwell’s Dunbar medal 
made in two sizes, examples of both being in the 
British Museum. 

Waterloo was the next general medal, but the 
veterans of the Peninsular War had to wait until 
1848-9, when, through the instrumentality of their 
old comrade in arms, the fifth Duke of Richmond, 
they received a belated distinction known as the 
Military General Service Medal, covering actions 
from 1793 to 1814. Many had died in the mean¬ 
time, unrecognized and unrewarded, and there were 
only 20,369 survivors of all ranks left to receive it. 

The years had been so long that one old officer 
had to consult the records at the War Office before 
he could be quite certain that he had been present 
at one of the battles for which a clasp was granted. 

These Peninsular medals are not difficult to obtain, 
but vary in price according to circumstances, and 
the other conditions mentioned above; e.g. one 
with three clasps, of the Royal Scots, Vittoria, 
Nivelle, Nive, is catalogued at £2 5s., another, of 
“ The Buffs,” very fine with very rare single clasp, 
“ Pyrenees,” £8. 

Among particular treasures eagerly sought after 
by the medal hunter are two special regimental 







Collecting as a Hobby 27 

groups both issued in 1794 ; i.e. one of the twelve 
gold medals given by the Pope to officers of the 
12th Light Dragoons, of whose presentation an in¬ 
teresting picture is in the South Kensington Museum, 
and the eight gold medals specially struck by the 
Emperor of Germany for the officers of the 15th 
Light Dragoons who charged at Villers-en-Couch^. 

In 1798 the recipients were allowed to wear them, 
and a ninth was deposited in the Imperial cabinet 
at Vienna. 

Medals sometimes turn up in very odd places. 
I know of a doctor who bought an oil painting of 
Napoleon at an old bookshop near Holborn. 

When he reached home he found a curious lump 
at the back of the canvas. The picture had been 
relined, and the original owner, obviously a soldier 
of the Emperor’s, had placed his Cross of the Legion 
of Honour between the two canvases, where it 
had remained all those years. 

Revolutionary and Napoleonic medals are not 
difficult to discover, and I have an interesting group 
of them. One, however, is extremely rare: the medal 
struck by Napoleon to commemorate the invasion 
of England, which never came off. I have seen a 
specimen in the museum at Boulogne. 

The German Lusitania medal is a curious example 
of kultur, so called, and might very well be termed 
the “ Murder Medal.” 

If you get the opportunity of comparing modern 
medals with those of our forefathers you will see 
at once that we have degenerated in the art. Thomas 
Simon, who designed during Cromwell’s time, was 
a much greater artist than almost all his successors, 





28 Hobbies 

and some of those worn to-day are mean and cheap 
to a degree. 

Among the most celebrated collections of recent 
times were the Gaskell, Harris, Tancred, Whitaker, 
and Lord Cheylesmore’s, the last of which you may 
see, ^happily still intact, in the museum of the Royal 
United Service Institution. 

When the Naval General Service Medal was given 
at the same time as the Peninsular it was, of course, 
retrospective, and covered 202 actions. Captain 
Whitaker possessed more than a hundred varieties, 
and a gold Boulton Trafalgar Medal sold for £22. 





COINS AND CRESTS 


C OINS are more easy to aceumiilate than medals, 
and a very decent collection can be made at 
quite a small expenditure, or by the favourite 
method of “ swapping.” 

Of course, if you yearn after early specimens 
they are going to cost you much more than their 
proverbial weight in gold, as witness a British gold 
stater of Epaticcus, which realized £42 at the Dawnay 
sale in May, 1922. In the same rooms, Sotheby’s, 
a silver penny of Stephen’s reign brought £40, and 
a five-guinea pattern piece of George III sold for 
£70 ; but the young collector has a wide and much 
less expensive field in which to wander, and my 
advice is to begin with copper. 

The original pennies, introduced by King Offa 
in 735, were of silver, and our terms, halfpenny and 
farthing, were first applied to one of these silver coins 
cut into two or four pieces. Edward I was the 
first British monarch to coin them separately, but 
it was not until Charles II’s reign, 1672, that copper 
farthings and halfpence were introduced and made 
current for all payments under the value of sixpence. 
Copper pence were not struck until 1797, and since 
1860 bronze has been the metal used. 

Trays of copper coins are to be seen in nearly every 
junk shop and dealer’s window, and hoards of them 
are constantly turning up in most unexpected places. 
I found a Charles II halfpenny myself in a crevice 
of Gorleston pier, and a friend of mine has a box full 

20 


30 Hobbies 

of copper coinage that was fished out of the River 
Dove, in Derbyshire, some of it very rare. Workers 
in the fields at Sandy, in Bedfordshire, once a Roman 
station, constantly rake up coins, and I have five 
that were discovered in this way. 

But perhaps the most curious finds of late are 
those recently made by a Kentish butcher who dis¬ 
covered a Charles II farthing dated 1674, a George III 

halfpenny, 1806, and numerous other 
specimens in the stomachs of bullocks 
he killed. The animals had been 
grazed on the Sheppey marshes, and 
must have come across some hidden 
hoard. 

Commence your collection by trying 
to get a copper coin of each reign from 
Charles II, exchanging faulty examples 
for better ones as occasion offers, and 
then work up through sixpences and 
shillings to the handsomest coin of all, 
tlie crown piece. 

The present value of these varies. For example, 
a Charles II is roughly worth about 7s. 6d., James II 
9s. to 10s., William and Mary 15s., and William III 
7s. 6d. 

You have all seen those blocked-up windows 
painted in feeble imitation of the real thing in old 
houses, and it is interesting to remember that the 
window tax owed its origin to the scandalous 
debasing of coin of the realm in the reign of William 
III. It became so bad in 1694 that it was called 
in to be re-coined. 

I know of a crown piece of William in splendid 




King Offa’s 
Fenny 





Collecting as a Hobby 


preservation that had slipped 
behind a farmhouse window and 
lain there for 119 years before 
it was found. It must have 
been a serious loss to its owner 
when one remembers that money 
was worth about five times its 



SUbseC[Uent value at that period. Charles II Halfpenny 

A Queen Anne five-shilling 
piece is worth about 12s. 6d., as is also a George II, 
while for a good specimen of George I one can get 
anything from 25s. to 30s. Those of the remaining 
reigns up to the end of Victoria are practically worth 
7s. 6d., but everything depends, of course, on their 
condition. 

Remember there were no five-shilling pieces 
struck in 1804 ; if you find one with that date it 
is a forgery. But Spanish dollars of 1795 were stamped 
with a tiny head of George III, and issued as crowns 
in 1804, their present value being 10s. 

Tampering with money or dealing in false coin 
was such a serious offence in olden times that in 
Edward I’s reign anyone bringing pollards or crockards 
(foreign coin of base metal) into the country was 
liable to forfeiture of life and goods. In Edward Ill’s 
reign it was made high treason to counterfeit coin 
of the realm, and under Henry V to make coin, or 
to bring into the realm any gaily halfpence, suskins, 
or dotkins, was to be guilty of felony. To attempt 
to pass them meant a fine of a hundred shillings, 
while clipping, washing, rounding, or filing money 
under Elizabeth was again made high treason, and 
high treason meant death ! 







32 Hobbies 

One of the best mediums for securing coins is 
through the Exchange and Mart, which has always 
been an excellent collectors’ journal. 

Coin collecting is sometimes attended by consider¬ 
able risk. A high official at the British Museum told 
me a strange story thirty years ago. 

They had in the museum the only known example 
of a tiny Greek coin. I forget its exact name, but 
it was about the size of a threepenny piece, and 
scarcely thicker than a visiting-card. 

One day a clergyman asked to examine it, and 
at that time they were less careful than they are now, 
but they were going to learn a lesson. 

The coin was produced, the reverend gentleman 
brought out his magnifying glass, and was left with 
the precious unique little bit of metal for a con¬ 
siderable time. 

When the moment came for him to return it 
to the custodian it was nowhere to be found. “ He 
searched, they searched, and rummaged everywhere,” 
as Byron puts it, but it had gone ! 

When he was informed that it would be necessary 
to search him he waxed so furiously indignant and 
betrayed such agitation that the police were called' 
in and the door of the gallery locked. 

Again and again he protested his innocence, and 

everybody went down on 
hands and knees for a final 
hunt, when one of the atten¬ 
dants felt something sticking 
out from a nick in the floor¬ 
boards, and drew out the 
missing treasure. 



Spanish Doubloon 












Collecting as a Hobby 


33 


“ Now, gentlemen,” said the elergyman, “ I 
will tell you why I objeeted to being searched, and 
you will understand,” and opening his pocket-book 
he showed them another unknown example of the 
hitherto unique coin ! 

Had they found it upon him he would- certainly 
have gone to prison, for the two were identical, 
and their own specimen might be lying to this day 
where it had fallen. 

Since then the greatest precautions have been 
taken, and no one is allowed to handle any of the 
rare specimens without close supervision. It is far 
too dangerous a thing for all concerned. 

I believe I am right in saying that a third example 
of that coin is now known to collectors. 

Thousands of coins have been found in the Thames, 
great quantities of them during the rebuilding of 
old London Bridge, and a Deptford gentleman 
collected GOO coins from the gravel that had been 
used to repair a pathway. 

An old gardener of mine once discovered a gold 
coin of the Emperor Hadrian, which is now in the 
British Museum, during the construction of a reservoir 
near Tottenham. 

The guinea dates from Charles II, when it was 
first made from gold sent home by the Guinea Com¬ 
pany, and named after them. Little Samuel Pepys 
in his diary gives us the actual date of their issue, 
21st September, 1668—“ This day came out first 
the new five-pieces in gold, coined by the Guiny 
Company; and I did get two pieces of Mr. 
Holder.” 

In the third year of George I the guinea received 







34 Hobbies 

its recognized value of 21s., and the last issued were 
in 1813. 

Spade guineas may be purchased at prices vary¬ 
ing from £l 7s. 6d. to £2 10s., but during the present 
year a James II two-guinea piece, 1687, fetched 
£13, a Queen Anne five-guinea piece £l, and a George 
III pattern five-guinea piece, dated 1777, £70. 

The ancient method of coining was to cut and 
shape each piece of metal, place it between two dies, 
and strike them with a hammer. It was a very 
primitive way of doing things, the difficulty being 
to keep the metal in position so that one die came 
exactly over the other. 

A great improvement was made in 1623 by Briot, 
a French artist, who had invented a press and was 
appointed chief engraver to our Mint, and though 
the hammer was occasionally reverted to, by 1662 
the mill and screw were permanently adopted. 

Monsieur Briot must have had his work cut out, 
for among the coinage of Charles I there were in 
gold the Carolus, double crown, angel, three-pound 
piece, twenty-shilling and ten-shilling pieces, rose 
and spur rials ; and in silver the twenty- and ten- 
shilling, seventeen different dies of crown, half- 
crowns, and of siege pieces the crown, the three 
shilling, two shilling, eighteenpenny, fourteen and 
thirteenpenny pieces, shillings, pennies, groats,* which 
were fourpenny bits, threepenny and twopenny, 
pieces. Siege pieces were, as the name implies, 
hastily coined for immediate necessities, often in 


* The groat whose value was fourpence was first issued by 
Edward Longshanks and revived again by William IV, when they 
were nicknamed “ Joeys.” The last were struck in 1856 










Collecting as a Hobby 


35 


some beleaguered town or castle, and consequently 
very rude in execution. 

If you set your imagination to work as you 
examine your eoin cabinet and those of your friends, 
it is like reviving history in a very tangible form. 
That five-shilling piece may have been tossed in 
payment for a cup of wine by Prinee Rupert himself 
when he drew rein some dusty day at the door of a 
roadside inn; this carolus very possibly changed 
hands on Hounslow Heath through the persuasive 
menace of Claude Duval’s pistol! 

In the old days men going on a journey had to 
carry their money with them, and it was only when 
bankers’ drafts were instituted at the end of the 
eighteenth century and saddlebags no longer bulged 
with coin of the realm that the craft of the gentle 
highwayman ceased automatically for all practical 
purposes. 

A very interesting collection may be made of 
French copper coinage from the Revolution onwards, 
and one can identify from the mint mark the exaet 
town in which the coin was struck. There were 
twenty official French mints in those days, and they 
turned out some very handsome pieces. 

Foreign money is interesting and quite easy to 
obtain. Those of you who have travelled on the 
Continent must have been struck with the different 
nations represented in a handful of loose silver. 

I remember once returning from Belgium with 
three five-franc pieces, all the money I had left. 
One was a Napoleon I, a remarkably fine specimen 
which I wished to preserve ; another was a Louis 
XVIII, and the third a Roumanian. I intended to 





36 Hobbies 

change two of them on the boat and keep the Napo¬ 
leon, but when I offered the steward the Louis XVIII 
he proelaimed it out of circulation. The Roumanian 
proved to be a bad one, and there was nothing for 
it but to part with Napoleon’s portrait. 

I was coming back from the Field of Waterloo, 
whieh battle Napoleon lost. I lost my five-franc 
piece, and oddly enough it was dated 1815 ! 

The big penny of George III is quite easy to 
proeure for three or four penee ; they must have 
been terrible things to have carried in one’s fob, and 
that reminds me of a little aneedote, for whieh I 
can vouch. 

The father of Hutton, the celebrated bone-setter, 
purehased- a raeehorse from a friend of my father’s 
for £300. The old man was an eceentric, and when 
it came to settling up he arrived with his man carry¬ 
ing a heavy sack on his shoulder, containing the 
amount in sixpenees, whieh he insisted on the seller 
counting out under his nose. Of course, it was not 
a legal tender, but it was take it that way or leave 
it, and the vendor took it ! 

One would like to chat about such things as 
Spanish doubloons and pieces of eight. Snap them 
up when you can get them, and again let your 
imagination carry you back to the days of the buc¬ 
caneers. 

Queen Anne farthings and Wood’s ha’pence are 
things to look out for, and Irish money is bound to 
become valuable as time goes on. 

Remember there were no Irish pennies of George 
II, and no George III pennies of 1773. 

Some boys collect Chinese “cash,” which has 






Collecting as a Hobby 37 

a square hole in the centre of it and is carried threaded 
on a string, and our Indian currency is easily obtained. 

Some coins have a tragic history. When the 
gallant defenders of the Delhi Magazine were making 
their escape after they had blown it up, one of them, 
Lieutenant Willoughby, with a handful of fugitives 
and an empty carbine, was held up by a swash¬ 
buckling rebel, who demanded their weapons. In 
a last attempt to get away Willoughby loaded the 
carbine with a copper Mussoree pice and shot the 
fellow through the chest. Unhappily his shrieks 
brought out the inhabitants of five neighbouring 
villages, and the little party were all butchered. 

Many books are published on the subject, of 
course, but the best of all are the catalogues issued 
by the British Museum authorities. 

It is a fascinating hobby, but I am afraid you 
will find, as I have done, that while the ancient 
specimens are the most difficult to obtain, the modern 
coins are even more difficult to keep I 

An album full of crests is a very nice thing to 
possess. Some of them are quaint and curious, 
others very beautiful, and all tell a story. 

The word is derived from the Latin crista, the 
comb or tuft which grows upon the heads of many 
birds. 

Their original use, as worn on the helmets of 
military commanders, is quite obvious—a kind of 
personal trade-mark and a rallying point for the 
soldiery. 

Crests are older than heraldry, though they 
subsequently formed an important part of that 
science; yet some families whose coat-armour is of 






38 Hobbies 

the most respectable antiquity have no crests at 
all. 

There is actually a difference between a crest 
and a badge, although in some cases they are used 
interchangeably. 

Crests were common in Chaucer’s time, but Edward 
III was the first monarch to introduce one into his 
great seal. To-day they are generally used on the 
family silver and notepaper, a guinea having to be 
paid to the excise for the privilege. 

For the purposes of collecting they can be divided 
into various classes, such as family crests, regimental 
crests, battleships, and those used by public bodies. 

You can buy the regimental ones in packets for 
a few pence. Messrs. Gale and Polden issue a fine 
series of these ; but by far the most interesting way 
is to get them from friends in the various regiments. 
Ask them to send you the regimental Christmas card, 
which generally has the crest in gold and colours 
upon it. By this means you get the personal touch. 

Family crests are a little more difficult to obtain, 
and some of them are quite expensive. Many appear 
on book-plates, and although I deprecate the custom 
of removing these from the volumes, it is one way 
of getting them. 

As most of them have a motto attached—and 
Washbourne’s “ Book of Family Crests ” on my table 
contains nearly four thousand examples—it is aston¬ 
ishing what a great deal of Latin the collector may 
learn if he will take the trouble to translate the 
mottoes. This in itself is ample justification for 
collecting crests, apart from the pleasure your friends 
will derive as they examine your specimens. 





VARIOUS COLLECTIONS 


I_BAXTER PRINTS 

I F you want to have a unique eolleetion, or at any 
rate one whieh only about two per cent, of your 
friends have ever heard of, start collecting Baxter 
prints. A number of these are exceedingly expen¬ 
sive, but there are hundreds of cheap ones, which 
can be picked up for next to nothing provided that 
one does not mind doing a bit of hunting. 

Baxter prints are sold either loose or in the books 
in which they were originally issued. The present 
writer constantly comes across them in the course 
of his book hunting up and down England, and in 
many cases he has been offered books containing 
rare Baxter prints for 6d. or Is. each. You probably 
may not be interested in the books themselves, but 
the Baxter prints are as a rule quite easily removed, 
and can be lightly pasted into an album. 

There are an enormous number of forgeries of 
Baxter prints, but you must not be taken in by them. 
The genuine ones have at the foot of them, “ Printed 
by G. Baxter, London,” and are exceedingly well 
executed and perfectly finished. If you come across 
Baxter prints that are damp-marked, spotted, or 
“ foxed,” as it is termed, give these a miss, as they 
are generally useless. 

An advertisement in papers like The Puhlishers 
Circular and The PrinL Collector s Quarterly from 
time to time will bring you quite a number of 
offers of genuine Baxter prints. There are several 

3Q 


40 Hobbies 

societies that make a speciality of them—for instance, 
the Drood Society, in London. You can collect 
Baxter prints at any place you may happen to be. 
For instance, if you spend a seaside holiday at any 
time, you will probably find a print dealer in 
some by-street who is open almost to give away 
prints if he is tackled the right way. Visit these 
print dealers in your oldest clothes, and on no 
account put on the manner of a man about town, 
or a man of means; otherwise prices may be fifty 
to five hundred per cent, higher than you would 
otherwise be asked. 


II.—SOME INTERESTING SLAGS 

Slags, as many fellows know, are waste materials 
which form above the metal itself during the process 
of smelting. A representative selection is not diffi¬ 
cult to get, and it need cost the owner nothing at all 
except a few pence perhaps in the matter of postage. 

First of all there are blast furnace slags, of which 
there are several kinds, hard and glassy, soft and 
powdery, and medium. Good samples of these can , 
be picked up in hundreds outside any ironworks, and 
while we are collecting them it would be a good plan 
to get a sample of what is known as slag cement or 
concrete, which is wet flour slag after it has been 
beaten hard, and dry floury slag after it has been 
slaked in the air. 

After this we must add to our collection basic 
slag, in lump and powder form, and Siemens’ slag. 
These are produced by the basic process and the 
Siemens process in steel-making respectively. We 







A Sea Stamp from 
Toga 



An Industrial 
Stamp from 
Newfoundland 


Another In¬ 
dustrial Stamp 
from New¬ 
foundland 


Spanish Stamp, showing Don Quixote 
tilting at the Windmill 




Australian Stamp, 
showing view of 
Sydney 





1922 Hungarian Bolshevik 
Issue 



Chilian Stamp, with 
head of Christopher 
Columbus 


SOME INTERESTING STAMPS 


Facing fage 40 . 











































































































Cross of the Legion of Honour 


Indian Mutiny 


SOME HISTORIC MEDALS 


Facing page 41 . 









Collecting as a Hobby 41 

can still further increase our collection by adding 
fused lime-stone slag from lime kilns, as well as the 
slag from lead-smelting and copper-smelting works 
in Derbyshire, South Wales and Cornwall. A few 
other slags may be added if desired, but these are of 
minor importance. 

All slags should be classified under the industries 
producing them. Small hand speeimens of the 
harder forms, and large pill or tabloid boxes of the 
powdery forms, can be accommodated in shallow 
drawers of the type used for minerals and fossils. 
Each slag should be carefully labelled with its name, 
approximate composition, and locality, i.e. works 
producing it, so that if anything unusual is noticed 
about it at a later date a further supply can be 
obtained without much difficulty. 

III.—RAILWAY STAMPS 

To start a collection of railway stamps, get all 
your friends to reserve what they receive on parcels 
coming by rail, and, of course, watch most carefully 
any parcels which you receive yourself from the 
various railway companies. Very often you will 
find that a single parcel has several stamps on it, 
and if the square of paper on whieh they are stuck 
is carefully cut out of the rest of the paper these 
stamps can generally be removed without difficulty 
by soaking them. 

It is quite worth while to buy unused railway 
stamps occasionally, especially if your collection is 
nearing completion as regards any particular com¬ 
pany. This can be done from your local station as 

D 








Hobbies 


42 

a rule, or through the parcels offices of the bigger 
stations. 

It is a great mistake to start a book of these 
stamps at too early a date. Keep them in extra large 
envelopes, on the outside of which you have written 
the name of the company, and then, when your col¬ 
lection is nearly completed, you can set about mount¬ 
ing them in a book in much the same way as you 
would mount postage stamps. 






Section IL—OUTDOOR HOBBIES 


WOODCRAFT AS A HOBBY 


^ I ''HOSE of us who have an inborn love of adven- 
ture and the open air will find the study of 
wooderaft of most absorbing and romantic interest. 
To some, of course, a wood is simply a collection of 
trees and shrubs, all more or less alike, and beyond 
these there is “ nothing particular.” Such people 
have two eyes, it is certain, but it is a question if 
they do not think one of them superfluous. Nothing 
short of an elephant or a lightning flash will attract 
their attention, and their ears are insensible to sounds 
less overpowering than a clarion call. The flowers 
are all buttercups, the plants all grass, the birds all 
sparrows, the clouds all black. 

To advise boys with such dormant faculties as 
these to undertake woodcraft as a hobby is some¬ 
what akin to trying to roll a gravel path with a reel 
of cotton. But, fortunately, in these days when 
the call of the countryside is so insistent, this type 
of boy is rare, and the call of the open air awakes in 
most of us an answering call when our eyes are 
opened to the glories of the wonderful world in 
which we live. 

I am afraid, too, that there are some people who 
take the study of woodcraft too seriously. They 
set out to “ do ” so much each day, something after 
the manner of the American tourist who rushes 
from city to city and plans his trip simply to a time- 

43 


44 


Hobbies 


table. At the end of the week he looks through his 
diary and feels perfeetly content if he has “ done ” 
all the places he set out to do ; he derives little 
enjoyment in the things he sees, and probably he 
remembers little of them; his self-satisfaction con¬ 
sists in being able to tell his friends that he has 
visited a large number of famous places. 

The keynote of any hobby must be simplicity, 
and this applies especially to the study of woodcraft. 
In our everyday work I know that it is quite neces¬ 
sary that we keep to a time-table, so that nothing 
is overlooked and the time at our disposal is duly 
apportioned, having strict regard to the importance 
of the work. Every one of us became quite used to 
working to time-table when we were at school, and, 
of course, school-life could not be carried on success¬ 
fully unless we did work in this manner. But it 
would be a great mistake to cultivate any hobby 
where all our actions are more or less mechanical, 
for it is quite essential that we be enthusiastic and 
interested in the pursuit of our hobby, and not 
think of it at all as work. 

I think the following little incident will make my 
meaning quite clear. Two Boy Scouts whom I 
knew quite well had decided to work for their 
Stalker’s Badge. They were town-bred boys and 
knew very little of wild life and the countryside, but 
they spent a holiday with a farmer who had the 
shooting-rights over a large wood, so that they were 
at liberty to go into the wood as often as they pleased. 
The lads had a fortnight at their disposal, and on 
the first day they drew up a time-table of the wotk 
they propos.ed to do on each of the twelve days, 





Outdoor Hobbies 45 

omitting the two Sundays. I saw this time-table 
and it ran something like this : Monday—a ramble 
all over the wood with a compass ; Tuesday—bird¬ 
nesting ; Wednesday—a study of trees ; Thursday— 
stalking ; Friday—^tracking ; Saturday—a study of 
woodland plants; Monday — a day’s rabbiting; 
Tuesday—a search for a fox’s earth and a study of 
any other wild animals ; Wednesday—a study of 
woodland plants; Thursday—a study of Indian 
signs ; Friday—snapping any birds or wild creatures 
with their Brownies ; Saturday—a collection of cones, 
leaves, twigs and bark, together with specimens of 
ferns and mosses. 

Now when these boys returned home they were 
not at all enthusiastic in the subject of woodcraft; 
their great aim had been to obtain the Stalker’s 
Badge which was duly awarded them by their Scout¬ 
master. They had entirely missed the make-believe 
of the thing, which is half the fascination of wood¬ 
craft, and it is certain that they would never take 
it up as a hobby. They had killed any enthusiasm 
they might have cultivated by making themselves 
machines, so to speak; they had been searching 
for things they could not see, all the while blinding 
themselves to those which were at their feet. Never 
once did they revel in creeping and crawling through 
the undergrowth in order to watch at close quarters 
the gambolling of some squirrel around the bole of 
a tree, and it would have been much too uncomfort¬ 
able to lie flat on their stomachs and worm their way 
through long grass so that they could have studied 
at first hand the lives and habits of many of the 
woodland creatures about which they had read in 






46 


Hobbies 


books on natural history. I am afraid these boys 
would much prefer to get their knowledge of wild 
life from cinemas, for it is certain that they had 
entirely missed the meaning of Nature’s wonderful 
ways which were everywhere in evidence in the green 
fields and shady woods had they only possessed the 
true spirit of the genuine woodcrafter. 

I often think when reading Shakespeare that the 
great poet must have learned much about woodcraft 
in the wide woodlands around his delightful home 
at Stratford-on-Avon. All through his works there 
is abundant evidence that he had surprised many 
of Mother Nature’s thousand and one secrets and, 
as he so aptly expressed it, he could find : 


I 


$ 


i 


tongues in trees, 

Books in running brooks, sermons in stones, 

And good in everything. 

But we shall have to “ cut the cackle and get to 
the ’osses.” The very best way to study woodcraft 
and become familiar with all the tricks and wiles of 
the woodcrafter is to make a friend of the game- i 
keeper. You would probably learn more of the art i 
in a month of his company than in a year by your- j 
self. Furthermore, most woods where game is pre¬ 
served are quite private property, and trespassers 
are prosecuted, so there would be little chance of 
rambling along the tortuous ridings unless one had ^ 
permission from the gamekeeper. ' 

It was my good fortune when a boy to come almost : 
into daily contact with a gamekeeper, for he and my ^ 
father were firm friends, and much of my knowledge 
of woodcraft was obtained in his company during 








Outdoor Hobbies 47 

our numerous walks through and around some large 
woods in Suffolk. He was usually known to the 
village boys as “ Old Velveteens,” probably because 
of the reddish-brown velveteen jacket which he 
wore. He has long since died, but I still have a 
vivid picture in my mind of his ruddy and weather¬ 
beaten face surmounted by a Homburg hat with a 
pheasant’s feather set jauntily in the side. The 
puckered skin beneath the eyes was striking evidence 
of the long vigils in the silent night-watches, when 
young partridges and pheasants had to be protected 
from human as well as four-legged poachers. Many 
a time have I seen a lusty leveret or a nimble rabbit 
slipped into one of the capacious side-pockets inside 
his jacket. 

The old proverb, “ An ounce of wisdom is worth 
a ton of theory,” is never more in evidence than in a 
few days’ companionship with a gamekeeper. He 
will know every bird by its call note ; he is able to 
distinguish animals by their tracks alone ; he possesses 
the Red Indian’s uncanny instinct in hunting ; and 
often he will call to the wild birds and hear them 
answering to his call. In his leisure hours he takes 
out a camera and snaps wild birds in a manner 
which would do credit to some of our great natural¬ 
ists. He knows the runs, drinking-places and bur¬ 
rows of most of the woodland creatures, and rey- 
nard’s underground home, cunningly though it is 
contrived, is an open secret to him. There are few 
people, however indifferent they may have been to 
the call of the wild, who would not become fascinated 
with woodcraft when the secrets of the woodlands 
are laid bare by Old Velveteens. . • 







48 Hobbies 

One of the most interesting studies in woodcraft 
lies in the art of identifying the tracks of animals. 
Each animal has its characteristic track, and it will 
have to be taken or sketched for future reference. 
Usually you will get only the imprint of four of the 
animal’s toes, unless it has sunk into moist ground, 
when all five may be seen. 

Of course tracks are identified best when snow 
lies on the ground, especially when the snow is frozen 
so that the animal does not sink in and obliterate its 
footfalls. At other times the best places to study 
tracks are on the sandv banks of watercourses, or 
the muddy soil in the damp corners of the woods. 
If one is setting out to make a special study of trails 
he should go after rain has fallen. 

There are several w^ays in which tracks may be 
taken and preserved without incurring great ex¬ 
pense or trouble in the preparation. Of course, the 
simplest and most inexpensive way is to sketch them, 
but we need an exact reproduction of the track 
itself which can be permanently preserved. All 
that we require are some wax, a box of matches, a 
small tin with a wire handle, and a pocket-knife. 
If there is any difficulty in getting wax, candle-grease 
will make an excellent substitute. 

As soon as a clear impression is found of the 
animal’s footfall we build up a small ridge of clay 
around it, care being taken not to allow any of the 
clay to fall on the track. Then light a small fire 
with a few dried sticks and set over it the tin with 
a lump of wax placed inside. This will soon become 
liquid, and then very carefully pour the molten wax 
into the track and wait until it becomes solid. Next 





Outdoor Hobbies 


49 


remove the surrounding ridge with the knife, and 
insert the blade under the waxen mould and gently 
raise it. Place it in a box and when you return 
home mix into a paste some plaster of paris and a 
little water in a flat tin. When the paste is nearly 
set, and resembles putty, press the wax mould into 
it and leave it to set hard. To remove the wax it 
will have to be heated until it begins to soften, then 
it can be gently lifted and gradually removed. 
This requires great care, but a little practice will soon 
make one quite proficient. 

r The most common tracks which are taken are those 
of the hare, rat, rabbit, fox and hedgehog. It is 
very difficult to obtain those of the badger, squirrel 
and otter. I have seen an otter’s tracks several 
times when on angling expeditions, and I knew 
quite well that they were an otter’s tracks because I 
saw the animal make them, but they were very in¬ 
distinct. Probably this is partly due to the curious 
habit of otters always following in each other’s 
footsteps, and their landing places are marked by 
innumerable blurred trails. 

The track of the rat is easily distinguishable. 
Its five tapering toes somewhat resemble the human 
hand, and if one expressed the character of animals 
by their footfalls he would be inclined to give this 
creature a loathsome reputation. The hedgehog 
leaves behind a curiously shaped 
footfall which is comparatively 
broad with pincer-like toes. 

Gamekeepers learn to follow 
animals long distances by their 
trails, and frequently they are Hedgehog 










Hobbies 


able to tell at a glance the class of animal which 
has robbed a hen-roost in the night. Some years 
ago when weasels and stoats were rather common 
in the woodlands, their depredations were even 
more terrible among fowls and game-birds than 
those of the fox, but as these creatures have 
become nearly exterminated most fowl-house 
robberies are made by reynard. 

The very best way to discover animals in the woods 
is to stand quite still; indeed, if you “ freeze stiff ” 
you may often find a rabbit, hare, fox, or game-bird 
come to within a few feet of you. There is, too, a 
distinct art in stalking animals and birds. Long 
practice will enable you to preserve your balance 
so that you can move absolutely silently. Have 
you ever tried a game called “ steps ? ” It used to 
be rather common in school playgrounds when I 
was a boy. One boy stands close to a wall which 
he faces, and the other boys try to reach him without 
being seen or heard to move. The boy is at liberty 
to turn round as sharply as he can, and if he detects 
another boy moving, the latter is at once sent back 
to the starting point. Step by step the boys lift 
their right legs very slowly off the ground until their 
knees are well bent, then they slowly straighten 
their knees, after which their feet are lowered so that 
the whole of the foot, toe and heel, touches the 
ground at the same time. Gradually the weight of 
the body is transferred to that foot and a similar 
process is gone through with the other one. It all 
sounds very easy, but try it; you will probably find 
it difficult to preserve your balance, especially if you 
try to make quick progress. 







Outdoor Hobbies 51 



Brown Hare Sitting Tight 


Most animals which live 
in woods make their homes 
along the outside of them. 

This is due to the fact 
that they can get more 
light and air on the out¬ 
skirts. Rabbit warrens usually skirt cornfields, and 
in the days when weasels and stoats were common, 
one was almost sure to find these natural enemies of 
the rabbit living very adjacent. Some years ago 
word went forth to the gamekeepers to exterminate 
the weasel group, which embraces the polecat, stoat 
or ermine, and, of course, the wxasel itself. The 
order was taken up very energetically, because this 
group had long been looked upon as a pest owing to 
its depredations among game-birds and their eggs, 


and I remember 


seeing 


twelve of these creatures 


dangling from the keeper’s tree at one time. In 
time it became extremely difficult to find a weasel, 
and all was thought to be well, but there is another 
side to the story, which all woodcrafters will do well 
to ponder over. 

You have heard of the Balance of Nature, and 
when man deliberately upsets this fine balance, he 
most assuredly suffers for it. The weasel family 
preyed largely upon rats, and probably more of these 
vermin were destroyed by these animals than by 
traps, dogs, or other contrivances. Since the stoat 
and weasel have been practically exterminated we 
have suffered three or four disastrous rat plagues, 
notably in the east of England around the estuaries 
of the Orwell and Stour. Experts who went very 
fully into the subject estimated that there were over 






52 


Hobbies 


forty million rats in England, and that each rat 
costs nearly a farthing a day when account is taken 
of the damage it does and the food it eats. More¬ 
over, rats multiply exceedingly fast. On an average 
each litter of young rats contains thirteen, and there 
are eight litters a year. When we consider that a 
rat has her first litter when she is about three months 
old, and that she lives for several years, we can well 
understand the enormous number there would be 
if there was not some natural check on them. 

Everyone who undertakes woodcraft as a hobby 
will have to learn a few of the tricks of trapping, and 


( 

I 

sometimes boys can make this pastime quite remunera¬ 
tive, for farmers usually pay “ twopence a tail ” for 
all the rats you can bring them. During the war, 
and immediately after it, a high price was realized 
for moles, and a young country friend of mine tells 
me he was paid a shilling for each mole he took to 
the dealer. Now that the price of fur has fallen 
the rate is much less. 

The most common contrivance for catching rats 
is the steel trap, but if you are to be very successful 
you must be up to all manner of ruses. For example, 
a rat’s trail was traced to my friend the gamekeeper’s 
fowl-house, and the rat was known to enter through 
a hole about a foot from the ground. A steel trap, 
with vicious-looking jaws, was set on the ground 











Outdoor Hobbies 


53 


immediately below the hole and covered lightly 
with mould. The creature skilfully avoided it the 
next night, but there was evidence that it had 
visited the fowls by the usual entrance. The follow¬ 
ing day the keeper procured a piece of fresh meat 
which he nailed a few inches to the right of the hole, 
and beneath which he set his trap, artfully concealed. 
The bait proved too much for the rat to resist; for 
in the morning he was found caught just above his 
hindquarters, as though he had sat down in the 
trap. Always be careful to stake down the trap, 
for rats have enormous strength for their size, and 
will sometimes drag the trap to considerable distances. 

If it is desired to catch the rat so that it is not 
killed, a wire trap is preferable, but these highly 
suspicious creatures need to be enticed very cun¬ 
ningly before they will enter. Some gamekeepers 
employ one or other 
forms of the dead¬ 
fall trap. One type _ ^ 

which I have seen 
in use consists of 
a heavy plank of 
wood raised from 
the ground at one 
end by two small 
wooden supports 
about two inches 
long and half an 
inch in diameter. 

Between these two 
supports the bait is 
inserted. This^may 



- 














54 Hobbies 

consist of a small bone on which a little meat has 
been left. The rat on finding the bait, tries to re¬ 
move it, when the supports collapse and the plank 
falls on its body. 

When I was a boy I tried the water-barrel trap, 
but seldom had any success with it; however, a 
deseription is given for what it is worth. An ordi¬ 
nary barrel is procured and this is partly filled with 
water, say, about a foot in depth. In the centre of 
the pool a bar of iron, or one brick laid upon another, 
is plaeed so that it stands about two inches above 
the surface of the water. A lath is hinged to the 
edge of the barrel, so that one end of the lath rests 
on a shelf or ledge along whieh the rats are wont 
to run, and the opposite end overhangs the centre 
of the barrel. At this end the bait is fixed. If all 
goes well the rat seents the bait and warily walks 
along the lath. As soon as he has got to the other 
end of the see-saw his weight presses down the lath 
and he is shot into the water below, when the lath 
immediately returns to its former position. He can¬ 
not climb up the slippery surface of the barrel, and 
it is too far for him to jump out, so he swims around 
until he takes anchorage on the iron bar. He at 
once begins to make a curious squeal, and probably 
other rats whieh may be in the vieinity come to his 
help and suffer the same fate. 

I have heard of cases where more than a dozen 
rats have been caught in a single night by this form 
of trap, but I have never succeeded in catehing 
more than one. However, the trap is inexpensive, 
and as it gives little trouble in setting it is worth 
experiment. 







Outdoor Hobbies 55 

There is much fascination in trapping, although 
I am afraid the desire for this sport arises from the 
baser primeval passions of man—to kill. A side 
of woodcraft which appeals with even more force is 
that of ferreting for rabbits. The first thing one 
has to do is to select suitable burrows, which are 
usually found in a spinney adjoining a wheat-field. 
A number of nets, somewhat resembling the country 
housewives’ potato-nets, are procured, and these 
are carefully staked over the numerous bolt-holes. 
They are allowed to hang loosely so that when the 
frightened rabbit bolts he runs his head through 
the mesh of the net, and is caught. Usually the 
hunter leaves the principal hole in the warren quite 
open if he has a gun, and he would take up his posi¬ 
tion a few vards to the rear of this. 

When all the holes are properly staked one or 
more ferrets are guided into them, and they at once 
set out on the trail of the rabbits within the burrows. 
Soon one may distinctly hear the frightened rabbits 
scampering along the “ runs,” especially if the ear 
be laid to the ground. In a short time first one 
and then another bolts, either out of the free hole, 
or into a net. 

A properly trained ferret will not actually attack 
a rabbit in its burrow, but seeks to drive it before 
it. On occasion, however, underground squeals may 
be heard, and there are signs that a terrible duel 
is being fought out. Usually the rabbit has its 
“back to the wall'” and the ferret bites chunks of 
fur and flesh from its quarry. In such a case the 
burrow must be opened above the place whence the 
sounds come, and when the duellists are laid bare a 






Hobbies 


sorry sight presents itself. The ferret is torn from its 
prey and receives a severe trouncing from its master, 
after which it is consigned to the box and kept on 
starvation rations for several days. 

Trustworthy ferrets are allowed to run into the 
burrows quite freely, but when the ferreter has 
reason to believe that the ferret will not emerge 
when it has finished hunting it is generally placed 
on a long lead. On one occasion I remember the 
keeper had to spend more than two hours in 
digging a wandering ferret out, and ever afterwards 
this creature was used with a lead. 

All woodcrafters will have to learn the most 
humane and quickest way in killing rabbits and 
other game. There is quite a knack in killing a 
lusty rabbit. It is taken up by the hind legs while 
you take hold of its head with the thumb 
tightly pressed into the spinal column at the junc¬ 
tion of head and neck. Just a quick jerk with the 
necessary force and the spine is broken so that the 
animal dies practically a painless death. 

There are two animals which all interested in 
woodcraft must study very closely, viz., the fox and 
the squirrel. Both are essentially creatures of the 
woods and spinneys. There is no need to question 
what animal is prowling along the hollows well under 
cover when nightfall or dawn is approaching, for every 
wakeful bird raises the alarm—when reynard slinks 
home. He is looked upon as their deadly enemy, 
and probably he is quite the most unpopular creature 
in the woods if we judge by the actions of his fur 
and feather neighbours. Hear the old cock-pheasant 
raising his strident warning when a fox is seen; the 








Outdoor Hobbies 


thrushes screeching, the jays chattering, and the 
smaller fry showing by their notes a lively agitation. 
None of these birds has any reason to fear him 
because they can easily fly to safety, but perhaps 
instinct tells them something of his reputation for 
robbing their mothers’ nests of their eggs and young. 

His lair, or “ earth,” is most ingeniously con¬ 
structed. Perhaps he has purloined the home of 
some burrowing animal, such as the badger. His 
reputation for cunning is shown by the lay-out of 
the earth. There are numerous tunnels intersect¬ 
ing each other in all directions, and frequently there 
are from eight to ten bolt-holes. Around the lair 
there is a most peculiar scent, and when he emerges 
and flies before the sound of the huntsman’s horn, 
the hounds follow him by this scent. 

His cubs are very playful creatures, and he is a 
devoted parent. Strange to say, foxes often live 
cheek by jowl with a colony of rabbits, although 
reynard frequently takes toll of their number. The 
gamekeeper knows all about the various earths, for it is 
part of his business to supply foxes for the hunt in 
the winter-time. Probably, if he had his way the 
fox would follow the fate of the weasel, for reynard 
is most unpopular by reason of his game-killing 
habits. Foxhunting is one of the last “ blood ” 
sports left to this country, and in many ways it is a 
degrading spectacle. 

Probably the squirrel is the most popular animal 
in the woods, if one judges by the attention he gets 
from human stalkers, all of whom am anxious to 
come to close quarters with him. His sense of 
hearing is so extremely well developed that it is 

E 





Hobbies 


most difficult to approach him when he is on the 
ground. It is certain that there are no more play¬ 
ful creatures in the woods than a family of young 
squirrels. 

The squirrel makes a great round nest of sticks, 
which is known as a drey. This is fitted together 
with roots, grass, twigs and other materials, and is 
rather^a clumsy structure. There is an opening in 
the side. Other nests are often made as places of 
refuge, and frequently the old nest of a rook forms 
the foundation for his drey. His winter quarters 
are usually in a tree’s hollow. 

It is interesting to watch a squirrel falling to the 
ground when he misses his foothold on a tall tree. 
The body is spread out to the fullest possible extent, 
and with the long brush forms a kind of parachute 
which enables the animal to fall comparatively 
slowly. 

The badger is now entirely missing from most 
parts of England, but one occasionally hears of him 
making his home on the southern slopes of some 
isolated wooded knoll. Should you be lucky enough 
to find his den and open it up, you would see that it 
was most ingeniously constructed. There are ten 
or a dozen passages, each about twelve yards long, 
leading towards a central chamber. This is lined 
with fur, moss, feathers and dry leaves. Most of 
the passages serve as bolt-holes in time of need, for 
the badger uses only two of them in the ordinary 
way. If there is a badger in the neighbourhood he 
will soon give himself away by his tracks, which re¬ 
semble those left behind by moles, but, of course, 
are much larger. If once pointed out to you, you 





Outdoor Hobbies 59 

would always recognize the pincer-like marks left 
in the mud by his long claws. 

Now and again one may come across the nest of 
a hedgehog in the bracken. He is supposed to be a 
weather prophet if we believe the old saw : 

Observe which way the hedgehog builds his nest 
To front the north, or south, or east, or west. 

For if Tis true what common people say. 

The wind will blow the quite contrary way. 

Do not be surprised if you come across a number 
of dormant snakes in the winter-time, lying with 
their bodies coiled around one another. They 
usually make their long sleeping-place in a hollow 
tree, among a bed of dry leaves. At first you would 
probably be frightened at their glassy stare, for 
the snake is one of those peculiar creatures which 
appears to sleep with its eyes open. The reptile has 
extremely thin and transparent eyelids which are 
always closed and only serve as a protection to the 
eyes. As these are transparent, we naturally con¬ 
clude that the eyes are always open. All wood- 
crafters will, of course, learn to distinguish between 
the common grass or ringed snake and the viper. 
The former is much like a long green worm, possessing 
black spots and a yellowish neck. The following 
tabulated distinctions should be kept for reference : 

1. The grass snake is much larger than the viper. 
(The former is seldom less than 22 inches, and the 
latter is seldom more.) 

2. The grass snake is of a light brownish-grey 
colour with a greenish tinge ; the viper has a zigzag 
black line right down the middle of its body. 






6o Hobbies 

3. The under part of the grass snake’s body 
resembles lead in colour, surmounted with black 
spots ; this is absent in the viper’s body. 

4. The head of the grass snake is more pointed 
than that of the viper; the latter has a hammer¬ 
shaped head. 

5. There is a faint V-shaped mark on the viper’s 
head which does not exist on the head of the grass 
snake. 

The woodland birds would well repay careful 
study. One hears the curious yaf-fil, yaf-fil, of the 
woodpecker as he clings to the bole of some rotting 
tree in search of insects ; Nature’s night-watchmen, 
the owls, glide through the air at dusk, and their 
homes may sometimes be discovered at day by the 
half-masticated pellets of fur and feathers which 
they have cast overboard down to the base of the 
tree ; the pheasants, in many ways the cock o’ the 
walk in the woods ; the dove family, cooing away 
overhead ; the magpie, jay, nightingale and cuckoo. 
Have you ever tried to lure a magpie by imitating 
his guttural chatter, or to set an owl hooting by 
blowing a flute-like noise between the thumbs of 
your hands ? The art of calling birds and animals 
may easily be acquired with practice, provided one 
has a musical ear and a good whistle. 

All woodcrafters will be quite proficient in naming 
trees, which they will distinguish not only by their 
leaves but by the bare twigs and bark. A young 
friend of mine has collected over fifty different 
specimens of leaves and preserved them in a book 
for future reference, and there is not a tree which 
he could not name correctly. 







Outdoor Hobbies 6i 

As a diversion in woodland studies one may 
play the game of “ Indian Signs.” Possibly there 
were no better woodcraftsmen ever known than the 
Red Indians, so well deseribed by Fenimore Cooper, 
and when on the trail they laid a number of signs 
so that those following would be able to keep to the 
right direction. 

This game may be played after the manner of 
fox and hare. Two cones, one placed upright in the 
ground, and the other carefully laid alongside, point¬ 
ing down one of the paths, indicates the route taken, 
A bunch of tied bracken pointing in a certain direc¬ 
tion, also may be used to point out the direction. 
Bent twigs may similarly be used, with the under¬ 
standing that upright twigs stuck in the ground 
near a twig, each represents a dozen yards. For 
example, suppose that the free end of the branch 
points at right angles to your previous direction, 
and that there are four uprights placed against it, 
this would mean that you had to follow the new route 
for a distance of forty-eight yards. Arrows carved 
on tree trunks are very commonplace signposts. 
Two crossed sticks laid on a side-path show that 
this trail is not to be followed. Other signs will 
occur to the ingenious woodcraftsmen; they are 
all matters of arrangement beforehand, but much 
fun can be derived from this game. 

After a few weeks of wandering about the long 
dim glades of the woods the book of Nature will be 
opened to you in a way you would never have 
imagined, and you will find woodcraft a healthy and 
a fascinating hobby. 






MOTOR-CYCLING AS A HOBBY 


F irst and foremost I should advise the pur¬ 
chase of a single cylinder machine, and a solo 
(cycle only) outfit at that. The single cylinder 
motor-cycle is the simplest form of petrol motor 
manufactured, and anybody with brains and care can 
very soon become sufficiently its master to drive it 
efficiently and carry out any minor repairs ; also, 
with one or two exceptions, four horse-power is the 
limit of development for the “ single,” and that is 
quite enough power for the beginner to have beneath 
him when he sallies forth on his initial journey. 
The reason a solo mount should be chosen is because 
it is so much easier to drive than a combination 
(cycle and sidecar). 

If it is intended to buy a brand-new machine, any 
hints on purchase are hardly worth while. 

But it is in the purchase of a second-hand bike 
that the care has to be exercised. Of course, you look 
over the bike. Start with the frame and wheels. 
See that the alignment of the frame is good. If it 
isn’t, drop the matter at once. See that the spokes 
of the wheels are good and sound. Jack the bike 
on to the stands and test the wheels by rocking them 
to and fro. If, after cone adjustment, there is still 
excessive play, the bearings are worn and you should 
either abandon the business or reduce the price you 
are willing to pay. 

Feel the under surface of the petrol tank. If it 
is wet the tank leaks. Test the head of the bike 

62 


Outdoor Hobbies 63 

for looseness, and see that the handlebars are not 
cracked. 

Examine the tyres. If they are worn, down goes 
your price, for you know you will soon have to spend 
money on renewing them. This also applies to the 
belt. 

Now turn to the engine. Take off the belt and 
catch hold of the pulley. Rock it. Excessive play 
indicates wear in your bearings. If this shows, drop 
the purchase at once, because it means the beginning 
of trouble. Next, lift the exhaust valve and turn the 
pulley until the inlet valve stem is as low as it will 
go. Then take the tappet between the fingers and 
move it from side to side. Considerable movement 
denotes wear. The same thing can be done with the 
exhaust valve tappet. To test the compression of 
the engine, stand on the kick starter pedal, if there is 
one. Providing you don’t throw your weight on to 
the pedal with a jerk, the engine should support you 
while you count five slowly. If there is no kick starter, 
jack the bike on to its back stand and either try to 
pedal against compression or endeavour to turn the 
back wheel with your hands. If you have difficulty 
in doing this, you may reckon that the compression 
of the engine is O.K. If, however, you find it easy, 
it means worn piston rings and low compression, 
and all idea of purchase should be dropped at once. 
The same applies if the cylinder is cracked. 

A trial run is, of course, an essential part of the 
buying process, and it should be arranged that the 
bike has to climb at least one steep hill during this 
run. Watch her carefully while travelling; listen 
closely for “ knocking,” that little metallic sound 






64 Hobbies 

which rings above the explosions and gets so loud 
under strain, and also see if she tends to develop 
undue heat. On this trial run give her plenty of oil, 
and when you get back examine the crank case for 
signs of leakage or cracks. If the case is cracked 
you should not buy. 

In the ordinary “ four-stroke ” engine—and this 
is the type most commonly in use—there are four dis¬ 
tinct mechanical actions to every explosion of gas, 
and two distinct revolutions of the flywheel. When 
you think of a motor-bike roaring down the road, 
this will give you an idea of the tremendous speed of 
its internal happenings. 

The cylinder. This is the engine in effect. It is 
the top part with the funny corrugations on its ex¬ 
terior, which corrugations, by the way, are designed 
to present a greater air service and so aid in cooling. 
Inside, the cylinder is machined to a marvellous 
smoothness. The top of the eylinder is shut right in, 
and the only outlets are at the bottom and through 
two holes in the side, these holes being fitted with 
valves called the inlet and exhaust valves. The inlet 
valve connects with the carburettor, and the exhaust 
valve, as its name suggests, with the open air; via 
the silencer. The purpose of the inlet valve is to 
admit the necessary mixture of gas and air; that of 
the exhaust to dispose of the exploded fumes. The 
bottom of the cylinder is fitted to the top of the 
crank case, and all communication with this crank 
case is prevented by the piston, a hollow cast-iron 
drum, circled with iron rings called piston rings, 
which fits the interior of the cylinder completely. 
This piston moves up and down, and is connected by 









Outdoor Hobbies 65 

means of a pin called the gudgeon pin, with a long 
rod known as the connecting rod. 

The eonneeting rod has phosphor bronze bearings 
at either end of it, in one of whieh the gudgeon pin 
works, the other end of the connecting rod being 
fastened to the crank pin down in the crank case. 
The crank pin is fixed to the flywheel, but “ out of 
centre ” of this wheel, so that an up and down move- 



The “ Four-stroke ” Engine 

1. Suction stroke begins: Inlet valve open, 2, Compression stroke completed: 
Both valves closed. 3. Power stroke begun : Both valves closed. 4, Exhaust 

stroke begun : Exhaust valve open. 


ment of the connecting rod causes a rotary move¬ 
ment of the flywheel and of the crank shaft on which 
it runs, and to which is affixed the pulley driving belt, 
which in turn transmits power to the baek wheel of 
the bicycle. Thus it will be seen that if the piston is 
moved up and down in the cylinder the flywheel will 
revolve, and the crank shaft with it, the pulley will 
turn, taking the belt, and in consequence you will 
obtain a revolution or part revolution of your back 
wheel. This is how the necessary movement of the 
piston is obtained. 

Four movements of the connecting rod, or two 
revolutions of the flywheel, go to a complete circle 












66 Hobbies 


of events in working of the petrol motor. The four 
up and down movements of the connecting rod, or, 
to simplify it, of the piston to which it is affixed, 
may be stated in four words indicating the purpose 
of these oscillations. They are : inlet, compression, 
explosion, exhaust. This is how they follow. 

The cylinder is empty. The piston descends, 
and as it does so it draws through the inlet valve a 
quantity of gas and air. It ascends and compresses 
this mixture in the top of the cylinder. When the 
piston reaches the top a spark from the sparking plug 
ignites the mixture, and the explosion drives the 
piston down again ; up it comes once more, carried by 
the momentum imparted to the flywheel in the crank 
case, and in its upward motion it lifts the exhaust 
valve and forces the exploded fumes through to the 
open air ; then on its downward path it once more 
draws in gas and air through the inlet valve, and the 
cycle of operations is repeated as before. 

The carburettor is the instrument which converts 
the liquid petrol in the tank of the motor-cycle into 
gas, and, by combining it with the requisite propor¬ 
tion of the air, produces the highly explosive mix¬ 
ture by means of the firing of which the motor engine 
is driven. 

It is divided into two portions, this carburettor, 
each of which is termed a chamber—viz., the float 
and mixing chambers—and the only connexion be¬ 
tween these two is a very tiny pipe having a small 
opening called the jet. It is with the float chamber 
that we deal first. 

This part of the carburettor is connected with the 
petrol tank by the petrol pipe, which, by the way, is 






Outdoor Hobbies 


constructed in the spiral formation so familiar to 
all in order to minimize risk of snapping under the 
constant vibration of the motor. The petrol is turned 
on, and the spirit flows from the tank up through the 
union in the bottom of the float chamber. Inside 
this chamber is the float. The float is a hollow cir¬ 
cular metal drum, very lightly made, which, of course, 
will float quite easily on liquid. Passing through 
this drum, point upwards, is a needle of steel, and 
the point of this needle fits into a small hole through 
which the petrol has to pass directly above the union 
with the petrol pipe. It will thus be seen that when 
the needle point is inserted in this hole no more petrol 
can flow into the chamber. So the length of this 
needle and the lift of the float are adjusted so that 
when the requisite quantity of the liquid is in the 
bottom of the chamber, the floating drum is lifted, 
raises two small levered balls clamped to the needle, 
the needle is forced downwards, and the point in¬ 
serted into the hole of the petrol union, thus stopping 
the flow. (See diagrams.) 

At the bottom of the float chamber is a communi¬ 
cation with the mixing chamber known as the jet, 
and as the petrol passes through the small orifice the 
float sinks, releases the needle from its position, and 
more petrol is allowed to flow from the tank. 

This is the whole action of the float chamber, 
and we will now turn to the mixing chamber. 

In this compartment the petrol, instead of, as in 
the float chamber, flowing through the top, is forced 
up through a narrow opening in the bottom. It is 
thus converted into a very tiny stream, and, being 
easily vaporizable, speedily becomes a gas. That is 






68 


Hobbies 


Ajr 

5uix 


Tickler 


Balance 

Weights 


Float , 
Chamber 


Fuel Pipe 

FROM TMS 



Throttle 

5ude 


To 

Induction 

Pipe 


Mixing 

Chamber 

Choke 

Tube 


Section through a Simple 
Typical Carburettor 


the object of 
having so 
small an inlet 
from the float 
to the mixing 
chamber. 

Round the 
jet, at the 
bottom, are 
arranged a 
number of 
carefully sized 
holes having 
outlet to the 
open air, and 
as the petrol 


vaporizes, these holes admit the external atmo¬ 
sphere. They are most accurately gauged as to size, 
and permit of a mixture of gas and air in which 
the gas is in a proportion of about two and one- 
fifth per cent. The mixing chamber is now full of 
this mixture, and we wish to convev it to the 
compression space of the engine, as described in 
the previous article. At the top of the mixing 
chamber there is an outlet connected by a union 
to the engine, this outlet being comparatively large 
and covered by a metal slide, which metal slide 
can be worked up and down by means of a lever on 
the handlebars. This is the throttle. On the other 
side of the mixing chamber is a similar opening which 
is used as an inlet for air, this also being covered by a 
controllable metal slide. This opening, which is 
gauze covered to prevent the admission of particles 









































Outdoor Hobbies 69 

of dust, is the extra air port, and on the correet 
manipulation of this depends the efficieney of the 
running of the bike, as well as its economy of 
working. 

However, to start the machine, in the majority 
of cases leave the extra air closed. “ Tickle the float ” 
—that is, depress the float by means of the little knob 
on the top of the float chamber provided for that pur¬ 
pose. This knob merely holds the float down and 
prevents it from closing the needle valve, and thus 
admits more petrol than usual to the jet, with the 
consequence that a heavier proportion of petrol gas 
is discovered in the mixture admitted to the com¬ 
pression chamber of the engine. You kick your 
machine into motion. The cycle of operations 
already described begins to take place, the inlet valve 
of the engine opens, and a proportion of the rich gas 
and air mixture passes into the cylinder head. It 
is fired by the spark, 
and the whole affair 
begins to work. The 
petrol in the jet va¬ 
porizes, the float drops, 
more petrol comes in 
from the tank, float 
lifts and closes inlet, 
and the whole thing 
starts again. Then, 
under the constant 
explosions, the engine 
begins to get hot, and 
it is time for the extra 
air to come into play. 


^Mixing '! 
} CHAMBEi^ 










































70 Hobbies 

You open it steadily, manoeuvring it until you 
find that you have got the correct position for it, 
and off she goes. 

Ignition, as its name implies, has to do with the 
formation of the spark which ignites the explosive gas 
in the cylinder. The instrument which is used on 
all modern motor-cycles, with one or two notable 
and powerful exceptions, to produce the electric 
current by which the spark is formed, is called the 
magneto. It is with this I deal 'first of all. 

Perhaps, in your physics laboratory at school, 
you have studied the question of magnetism, and 
therefore know that a magnet possesses a north and 
south pole. A magnet being a piece of steel bar bent 
to the shape of an arch or horseshoe, these poles are 
at either end of it. The piece of steel is highly elec¬ 
trified, and as a consequence it throws out “ lines of 
magnetic force ” which radiate from the north to the 
south poles in ever-widening curves like the ripples 
caused on the surface of a pool by the dropping of a 
stone. Thus, by bending a magnet we get a space, 
that between the two arms, filled with these lines of 
power. If you take a piece of metal which is a very 
facile conductor of electricity, say a copper rod, and 
pass it between the poles of the magnet, it cuts these 
lines of magnetic force, absorbs their power, and an 
electric current flows along it. If you pass it back 
again, the same thing occurs, except that the current 
runs in the opposite direction. So, if you want to 
obtain constant current from the magnet you must 
keep moving the copper bar across the magnetic 
field. This is exactly what is done in a magneto. 

First of all a number of magnets, sometimes 








Outdoor Hobbies 


71 


three, sometimes as many as six, 
are used. We deal with the six- 
magnet instrument as being the 
most up to date. Three of the 
magnets are fitted side by side, and 
the other three are slipped and 
serewed over them. All the north 
and south poles are on the same 
side. Between the poles of the 
inside magnets two solid pieees of 
soft iron are fixed, having coneave 
surfaees maehined in them. These 
are termed the pole pieces. A 
stick of soft iron is then taken, and 
copper wire is wound round this lengthwise. This 
arrangement is called the armature of the magneto. 

When the winding is completed the whole is 
fitted to a rod called the armature shaft, and inserted 
between the concave surfaces of the two pole pieces, 
the openings at each end being closed with brass 
plates. One end of the wire wound round the arma- 



A Magneto 

A, Pole Piece 

B, Armature 


































72 Hobbies 

ture is fixed to the frame, and the other, covered 
with some insulating material—i.e. a material which 
is a non-conductor of electricity—passes out through 
the hollow shaft armature, and is connected with what 
is known as the contact breaker. 

Thus it will be seen that, should this armature be 
revolved rapidly, its wires will be constantly cutting 
the magnetic field created by its magnets between 
which it is running, and a constant current be set 
up. And this is exactly what occurs, the armature 
being turned by means of driving gear connected with 
the engine. 

An electric current flows from one side of its 
generator to the other, or else to the earth. In the 
latter case, the current is known as what is “ earthed.” 
The pole from which it starts is called the “ posi¬ 
tive,” that to which it returns the “ negative.” 
With a magneto the current is “ earthed ” one end of 
the armature coil being fixed to the frame which only 
“ earths ” it. If a gap is caused in the complete 
circuit between its starting and stopping points, and 
this gap is but a tiny one, an electric current, providing 
it has sufficient voltage, or, in simple language, 
pressure of running, will jump this gap in the form of 
a spark. 

In the top of the cylinder is the sparking plug, 
an instrument connected with the magneto by a wire, 
and having a broken circuit at its nether extremity 
called the points. This end of the plug, of course, 
is inserted in the cylinder. At the magneto are two 
platinum points, which are affixed to what is called 
the “ contact breakers,” and these two points are 
separated by means of a tiny mechanism at the 








Outdoor Hobbies 73 

moment when the pressure of current from the arma¬ 
ture is at its highest. When these points separate, 
the current, under great pressure, flows swiftly along 
the high tension wire to the plug, jumps the points 
in the shape of a spark, ignites the waiting gas and 
returns to earth. 

In the latest form of magneto, in addition to the 
first layer of copper wire about the armature, which 
is known as the primary winding, there is a second 
layer called the secondary winding, these two being 
connected, the object being to provide a high-ten¬ 
sion or high-pressure current, and, consequently, a 
more dependable spark. Also the armature core, 
instead of as before being a sordid mass of soft iron, 
is made of thin plates pressed tightly together, 
this arrangement having been found to give more 
satisfactory results than the older one did. 

By the way, a tip. If anything goes radically 
wrong with your magneto and you are no electrician, 
take it straight away to somebody who is, or you will 
make a mess of it. The magneto is a specialist’s 
job, and very few motoring men understand it. 

The timing of the valves of a petrol engine is at 
first sight a most fearsome job, when one is informed 
that the inlet valve must be arranged to lift when 
the downward suction stroke is in progress, that 
both valves must remain closed during the com¬ 
pression and explosion strokes, and that the exhaust 
valve must lift on the upward, fume-expelling stroke 
of the piston. And yet the mechanism by which 
this is obtained is the simplest possible. 

Each valve is fitted to a long metal rod surrounded 
by a spring, the pressure of the spring being directed 

F 





74 Hobbies 

toAvards keeping the valve closed. The valves on the 
best known English makes are placed side by side, are 
easily accessible, and simple in operation. 

The rods, Avhich are knoAvn as valve stems, descend 
from the valve head and rest on little metal tables 
topping other metal rods, these latter arrangements 
being named “ tappets.” The tappets descend into 
the crank case, and their lower extremities rest on 
right-angled pieces of metal Avhich, in turn, run 
against a peculiarly shaped article called a “ cam.” 
A cam is just like a ring slid over an axle, except 
that one side of it is distorted and bumps out of 
the symmetrical. 

On the crank shaft, or axle, of the flywheels driven 
by the piston is fitted a small cogged wheel. En¬ 
meshed with the cogs of this Avheel are two other 
cogged wheels, and fixed on the axles of these tAvo are 
the cams operating the rockers or right-angled pieces, 
on Avhich rest the vahx tappets. The tAV'o cogged 
Av^heels driving the cams have tAAuce as many cogs as 
the Avheel on the crank shaft, so that this latter 
turns round tAA'ice to their once. By carefully setting 
the cam, it can be arranged that its bump is under the 
inlet valve tappet as the piston comes doAAUi. The 
bump lifts the rocker operating the tappet, the 
tappet moves upAvards and the vah^e is raised from 
its seating. This piston comes doAAm, turns the crank 
shaft, the cogged Avheels rcA^olve and the bump on the 
cam goes down, Avith the result that the valve returns 
to position. The same action occurs AAuth the ex¬ 
haust valve, and as the operating AA^heel on the crank 
shaft has only half as many cogs as the tAvo which 
operate the valves, it has to turn round twice in order 






Outdoor Hobbies 75 


to bring the cams into play, with the result that for 
one complete revolution of the fl}wv^heel, or two move¬ 
ments of the piston, corresponding to the compression 
and explosion strokes, the valves are shut. 

That is the method of timing the opening and 
closing of the valves, and an examination of the gear 
on a bike in conjunction with these few notes will 
make it quite clear to anybody. 

When two metals are rubbed together at high speed 
friction is produced, and consequently heat. Heat, 
in metals, means expansion, and expansion spells 
disaster when those two metals are part of the 
machine. With the tremendous speed of working 
of a petrol motor, it will be readily understood that 
the problem of heat is a very stiff one, and lubri¬ 
cation is a most important item in the operations 
of the motor-cycle. Oil has to be literally pumped 
into the crank case, and, once there, it is splashed 
about the interior by the speeding flywheels. In 
hand operated pumping gear I should advise about 
half to two-thirds of a pump per two to two and a half 
miles, but this may be varied a little according to the 
running of the particular machine on which you find 
yourself; but remember that over-lubrication is far 
better than lack of it. If you forget to oil your 
engine it is fatal, for the expansion mentioned above 
as being a product of heat generated by friction will 
surely take place, and the cheerful condition known 
as “ seized up ” will result. 

So, unless you are sure, always err on the side of 
over-oiling rather than run the risk of constantly 
getting the machine over-heated and finally ruined. 

To assist in the cooling of the engine, the top of 





76 Hobbies 

the cylinder is cut in corrugations, the object being, 
of course, to present a greater surface to the air, 
and in connexion with over-heating I would em¬ 
phasize that it is always necessary to drive with 
as much air as the engine will take, as a rich mixture 
produces over-heating very quickly, besides being 
expensive. 

Transmission is the means by which the motive 
power generated by the engine is conveyed to the back 
wheel of the bike. Of course, the simplest and most 
known method by which this is done is by means of a 
pulley clamped on the exterior portion of the crank 
shaft, driving a belt which runs on a rim on the back 
wheel. This is direct drive and is understood by 
anyone, but though it is simple it has the dis¬ 
advantage that the gear is constant under whatever 
load of strain the machine may be subjected to. In 
order to allow of low-powered engines taking heavy 
loads up hills a gear box is inserted between the 
engine pulley and the back wheel, with a clutch 
between the gear box and the engine. The gear 
box is an arrangement containing a number of 
cogged wheels of various sizes, which can be meshed 
at will by means of a lever, a smaller or larger wheel 
producing a corresponding difference in the gear 
ratio, while the clutch is a collection of leather and 
metal plates, held together by powerful springs. 
When these springs are allowed to operate they con¬ 
vert the cluteh into a solid mass, but when they are 
distended by means of a clutch lever the plates run 
loose and connexion with the engine is broken. 

There is one thing which must be attended to at 
home, and a most important item at that, and that is 





Outdoor Hobbies 77 

carbon deposit in the cylinder head. This is caused 
by the lubricating oil, which forces its way from the 
crank case past the piston, mixing with the impurities 
drawn through the extra air, burning and drying, and 
settling on the interior top of the cylinder and the 
piston. It is one of the greatest factors in des¬ 
troying the efficiency of the engine, and if you find 
that the unit begins to labour under the lightest strain, 
you may depend on it the carbon deposit has some¬ 
thing to do with it. In order to remove this deposit 
the cylinder head has to be taken off. Unscrew the 
carburettor and exhaust unions, undo the big bolts 
fixing the cylinder to the crank case, and tilt the 
cylinder backwards. Turn the crank shaft until the 
piston is at its lowest point and away will come the 
cylinder. The deposit on the piston head should be 
scraped off with a knife, that on the cylinder walls 
carefully removed with a chisel, caution being 
exercised not to damage the machining of the walls. 
Before removal of the cylinder, the engine should be 
thoroughly cleaned, to obviate the possibility of any 
dirt getting into the crank case. 

Valves should be “ ground in,” i.e. made to fit 
absolutely close to the seatings, and all deposit re¬ 
moved from them at regular intervals. Badly seated 
valves mean loss of compression, and loss of com¬ 
pression, of course, is lost power. 

The needle valve in the carburettor should be 
attended to occasionally to see if it is perfectly 
accurate in working, otherwise waste of petrol and 
high cost of running ensue. If it does not fit, grind 
it carefully until it does. 

It is as well to run over all the joints of the engine, 






78 Hobbies 

such as inlet and exhaust joints, sparking-plug orifice, 
to make sure that they are compressing tight, as any 
little leakage there means loss of power, and in a 
small strength unit the tiniest wastage counts. 

The bearings, both top and bottom, should be 
tested for play, and if there is too much of this, 
attention should be given them by a mechanic who 
understands his business. 

The hubs of both back and front wheel should 
always be cared for, as ground-up ball bearings in 
either of these is a far more fatal happening on the 
road than the minor engine troubles one is likely to 
encounter. And yet the cycle parts of the machine 
are often neglected. I often, in walking about the 
streets, observe fellows careering round on motor-bikes 
with the front or back wheels wobbling, obviously 
indicating cones out of adjustment, and, as a result, 
completely ruined ball bearings, unless their luck 
shows them the fault in time. The head and wheels 
should be always properly lubricated. 

Tyres should be gone over always between trips, 
and any jagged pieces of glass, etc., bedded in the 
outer surfaces taken out with a knife and the orifice 
filled with cover filler. Properly cared for tyres will 
give fifty per cent, more service than neglected ones, 
and with the rubber market at its present high 
standard, every week of running is a consideration. 

And belts ? I advise without hesitation a rubber 
belt. The rubber belt is cleaner, more reliable and 
absolutely no trouble. If, however, you have a 
leather belt on your machine, always bear in mind 
that leather, unless oiled, gets hard, and therefore 
treat your belt with castor oil in order to keep it soft 








Outdoor Hobbies 79 

and pliable. A leather belt will be found to stretch 
a good deal, especially when new, and so, before 
setting forth on a run, always test it for slackness. 
When you return from a trip, whichever belt you have 
fitted, remove it from the belt rim so that all un¬ 
necessary strain, while the machine is not in use, is 
obviated. The advantages of a rubber belt are 
comparatively little stretch, no need for attention in 
order to keep in good condition, while the only 
direction in which a leather belt scores is it does not 
slip so much in wet weather; but the advantages 
of the rubber belt far outweigh this consideration. 
On all rubber belts will be found an arrow, this arrow 
indicating the direction the belt should run in when 
fitted, and care should be taken that the belt is so 
placed on the machine. 

Attention should always be paid to the lamps and 
acetylene generators, the latter being kept well 
cleaned and in thorough working order. 

It is a terrible thing to be broken dovm a dozen 
miles from nowhere and unable to locate the cause of 
the trouble. I wonder how many fellows there are 
driving motor-bikes whose sole knowledge starts and 
finishes with the notion as to which lever to move 
to make it go faster or slower or stop. Some, I’ll 
warrant. So let us see what little things might 
happen on the road to convert our trusty old bus 
into a useless dead-weight. 

First of all, and commonest of all, is the sooted 
plug. Burnt oil and impurities coat on the “ points ” 
of the sparking plug and, being non-conductors of 
electricity, do not permit of a spark. Results, no gas 
ignition, no explosion, no go. So when we first 






8o Hobbies 

stop unintentionally let us look at the plug. Take 
off the high tension wire and remove the plug from 
its seating. Place it on top of the cylinder and twist 
the high tension wire about it. Turn the engine 
and watch for a spark. No spark. Have a look at 
the plug. Sure enough it’s sooted. Take a little tin 
box lid, run into it some petrol from your tank, and 
wash the points in the spirit. Try the plug again. 
Some spark ! Screw in the plug and off you go. 

But, suppose when you test first of all you get 
a spark ? That shows that the ignition side of the 
machine is O.K. Another department has gone 
wrong. Just think a minute. There are two prin¬ 
cipal factors in the working of a petrol motor, the 
ignition and the gas supply. The ignition is all right, 
so turn to the gas supply. Petrol in tank ? Yes. 
Come down to your carburettor. Try to flood it. 
Won’t flood. Needle valve choked with some 
foreign substance, such as dirt or grit from the 
bottom of the tank. Remove the cover and clean 
the valve. If it floods, the jet may be choked. 

Remove the chamber and blow through the jet 
to shift any tiny pieces of grit that may have lodged 
there. At the same time examine your float chamber 
for water. You will see it in little globules on the 
bottom. These little globules slide over the jet 
orifice, prevent the entry of the spirit and stop the bike. 
They should be carefully removed. Water in car¬ 
burettor is the most fatal thing possible and every care 
should be taken to prevent its entry. If water is in 
your tank, and you will soon discover its presence, if, 
after cleaning out the float chamber, more water 
appears there, the only thing to do is to empty the 











Outdoor Hobbies ' 8i 

tank and filter the spirit. This ean hardly be done 
at the roadside and the only thing possible is to get 
to a garage as soon as ean be. With the modern 
tanks, however, the presenee of water is hardly 
possible without eulpable negleet by the driver. 

Sooted plug and ehoked jet are two of the com¬ 
monest causes of stoppage and can be rectified in five 
minutes, and, having described them, we will hark 
back to the ignition. Suppose that after cleaning 
your plug you still fail to get a spark. Take the cover 
from your magneto and examine the points. They 
are dirty. Clean them and adjust them for distance, 
*4 mm. being correct. Still no spark. See if the 
rocker arm of the contact breaker is working 
properly. If it sticks, thin down the fibre bush it 
runs on until quite free working is assured. You 
will probably now get a complete and good spark. 

You may be jogging along comfortably when 
suddenly the engine misses fire, chugs and stops. 
You get off and look at it in the usual disgusted 
manner. Kick her up again to see if she will run. 
She starts at once. You get on board and after she 
has run about twenty yards she stops again. This 
happened to me a little while ago. I tried the car¬ 
burettor and found it all quite right; turned to the 
plug and located the trouble: the porcelain was loose 
and the electrodes kept shorting, so that the current, 
instead of passing to the points, went the quickest way 
and when the electrodes “ shorted ” I got no spark. 
Fortunately I had a new plug and so was able to 
rectify the fault at once. Therefore, when the above 
symptoms evidence themselves, try the plug, and if the 
centre is loose replace the whole thing without delay. 









82 Hobbies 

Sometimes, but not very often, a valve breaks. Of 
course, the only remedy is to replace it, therefore a 
spare valve should always form a part of your kit. 
Usually a broken valve can be located by the fact 
that the engine runs fairly freely with the exhaust 
valve dropped, indicating no compression. 

The novice, especially the young novice, usually 
tries to show how particularly smart he is on a motor¬ 
bike, by tearing along at an awfut speed down a 
tram-lined main road, hat off and head down, just to 
indicate that he is “ one of the bhoys.” But that is 
silly, it is dangerous, and it is not good driving. 

And now for care. You can’t be too careful. I 
don’t want to convert you into a nervous bundle of 
femininity on a motor-bike, but I have seen too much 
of the trouble caused by reckless driving to let pass 
an opportunity to emphasize the need for care. If 
you are in doubt choose the safer course. Always 
pass traffic on the outside, except trams, which may 
be passed inside, and when those trams are stationary 
let your klaxon or horn go for all it’s worth, because 
somebody is sure to step off the tram as though 
there was nothing else on the road except themselves. 
Avoid little children as you would the plague, even 
though they are on the path. They have a nasty 
habit of running off in front of you without warning. 

Economy. That’s the primary consideration after 
safety. We all want to do things cheaply in these 
days of high prices, and so economy must be the 
watchword when we hie ourselves forth for a ninety- 
mile spin. In a second-hand machine it is sometimes 
found that the petrol consumption is high. It is a 
good wheeze to test this consumption over a given 






Outdoor Hobbies 83 

mileage, and if it shows a high figure for the make of 
bike (the makers will always let you have approxi¬ 
mate figures for their machines), I should try fitting a 
smaller jet. 

Don’t drive the bike constantly at its ultimate 
speed. It is the worst thing possible for it. 

Make use as much as possible of your ignition 
lever. By advancing the ignition you get a quicker 
fire at your plug, greater power, seeing that the ex¬ 
plosion is actually compressed, and quicker running, 
without using more gas. So, after you have started 
up and your engine is getting comfortably warm, 
begin to open the air and shut down the throttle, 
at the same time edging forward the ignition. 
Manipulate the air, throttle and ignition levers until 
the engine appears to be doing her best, but never 
cease until you have your ignition as far advanced as 
possible, your air as wide as it will go, and your 
throttle closed down to the limit. Air and advanced 
ignition cost nothing, while an open throttle means 
used gas, and used gas is petrol. 

When you go on a long run, especially through 
hilly country, nurse your engine for all you are worth. 
You don’t want her to run hot at the first rise. Rush 
little hills but approach big ones circumspectly, and 
when you know there is a two-mile gradient ahead 
of you, let the old bus take it easy for a little while, 
give her plenty of oil and generally pet her up in pre¬ 
paration for her long pull. She will give you faithful 
service on the hill for all your little attentions when on 
the flat. As she labours up the slope, gradually 
open your throttle and close your air, at the same 
time retarding the ignition. 






Hobbies 


Experiment with the lubrication side of the 
machine, and although half to two-thirds of a pump¬ 
load every two to two and a half miles is a fair in¬ 
dication of what may be required for a hand-worked 
lubricator, every bike has her own requirements and 
you may find it necessary to exceed this in some 
cases. 

Never start out without examining your brakes 
and seeing that they grip properly. You don’t want 
to find out that they are faulty when you are running 
down a steep hill with a sharp turn at the bottom. 

The rest I leave to yourselves. You will soon 
discover the best way to get the most from your 
machine, and if you always bear in mind that the 
better you treat a motor-bike the more it will do for 
you, you cannot go far wrong. 

One tip for the road. Always be courteous to 
everyone you encounter, and if you see a fellow 
motorist in trouble, try to help him. You might want 
someone to play the Good Samaritan to you one day. 





HINTS ON YOUR CYCLING HOBBY 


T7IRST the private motors and now the giant 
char-a-bancs have driven many “ push- 
cyclists ” from the main roads to the country lanes 
where these modern leviathans cannot penetrate, 
and thus the pleasures associated with the ordinary 
daily run to the sea, or some much-favoured spot, 
have sadly diminished for the fellow who likes to cover 
distance but cannot afford or is not attracted by the 
motor-cycle. And many there are, indeed, who still 
prefer the self-propelled method of travelling around 
to the worries and oily nuisances of the petrol- 
driven machine. 

Where a tour is concerned, however, the cyclist 
need have no fear. The beauties of the countryside 
are still open to him, and by using main roads in the 
early hours, and cutting through the by-lanes during 
the busy times of the day, he may enjoy his holiday 
without being scared by the speedy and luxurious 
Rolls-Royce, or the crowded char-a-banc of the 
people. 

Our old friend the horse may become extinct, your 
motorist may take to the aeroplane, but the much, 
abused “ push-bike ” will always be with us—he is 
a friend we will never throw aside. 

Let us, then, contemplate our tour. 

The first point under consideration is the state of 
your mount—second only in importance to your 

85 


86 Hobbies 


own physical well-being. The machine must be 
thoroughly overhauled, and in Part 1 of this article 
I give you what, I think, will be useful tips, ignoring 
the obvious cleaning methods with which even the 
youngest cyclist is familiar. It is in the “ doctor¬ 
ing ” of the machine that a good deal of neglect is 
to be found. 

HOW TO “(DOCTOR” YOUR BICYCLE 

Although nearly every boy overhauls and paints 
his bicycle occasionally, if it is at all worn, few 
“ doctor ” their mounts. This needs some explana¬ 
tion, for the annual overhaul is supposed to cover 
everything in the way of renovation. What hap¬ 
pens, however, only too frequently, is that the 
owner of the cycle cleans, paints, and polishes his 
mount, but leaves such points as adjustment, the care 
of the tyres, and other important details right out of 
his scheme of improvement. 

It is not always necessary to re-enamel a machine, 
but it is all-important that such things as bearings, 
tyres, valves, and cranks should be kept in good 
condition. 

Begin with the chain. Take it off, soak it in 
paraffin for some hours, rub it quite dry, then oil 
every link carefully. After the chain, see to the 
bearings, but I am not in favour of taking the bearings 
to pieces, unless it is absolutely necessary. Should 
they want adjusting take the matter in hand, but 
if you do not understand this kind of work, let a cycle 
dealer do the adjusting for you ; it would be dan¬ 
gerous for me to try to describe the process to a 





Outdoor Hobbies 87 

novice. Remember a bad accident might follow a 
blunder. 

If, however, you understand the rudiments of 
adjustment, one or two hints may be helpful. For 
example, although many people tell me that they 
can adjust a back wheel with one spanner, I have 
never succeeded in doing so, and I have ridden since 
I was a boy of eleven. On most maehines there seems 



to be a distinct tightening of the bearings as you 
screw up the nuts—this should be allowed for. Per¬ 
haps my methods are old fashioned, but I always use 
two spanners to adjust a back wheel (see Sketch 4, 
the dotted arrows show the directions taken by the 
spanners). Remember, if a bearing is left too tight, 
the cones may split; this happened on one of my 
machines when I was a lad. 

When pocket money is scarce tyres have to be 






















88 Hobbies 


“ doctored,” for sooner or later holes appear on the 
tread, and they crack just above the wire or beading. 
Holes or cracks off the tread can frequently be 
doctored. For example, cracks can be sewed together 
with waxed thread (see Sketch 3), but some people 
just stick canvas round the tyre (see dark patch. 
Sketch 2), sometimes on the outside, which looks 
horrible and cannot be very effective. Large holes in 
the outer cover on the tread are a serious matter, and 
I fear there is no real cure for them that is within 
reach of the amateur. Probably the S.F. cross patch 
is the best remedy for moderate-sized holes of this 
kind, but, of course any outside patch makes the tyre 
a little “ bumpy.” 

Few people know how to get a cotter pin out of the 
crank, but I have found the method shown on Sketch 1 
most effective. H is the hammer with which you beat 
the pin ; I, a piece of metal to take the blow and save 
the top of the tliread, and HH a heavy hammer 
placed under the crank to prevent jarring the bearings. 
To hit the top of the thread directly, will turn over 
the metal so that the nut cannot be replaced. I have 
seen people, who should have known better, bang 
nice machines about with heavy hammers in their 
efforts to extract cotter pins from the cranks; if the 
bearings go wrong after these attacks they just 
blame the maker of the bicycle. 

The machine should be oiled, nuts tightened, and 
stones removed from small holes in the tread of the 
tyres—stop these holes with “ tyre putty.” 

Sketch 5 shows a mode of hoisting your machine 
off the ground whilst “ doctoring ” it. Do not hang 
it as you would for enamelling; use two ropes and 







Outdoor Hobbies 89 

two eyes (strong ones), as shown; you can then lift 
only one wheel or both off the ground. 

OFF FOR THE TOUR 

If you are setting out for, say, a week’s touring, 
it will be necessary to carry, at any rate, some 
luggage, but let me advise you not to take more than 
you need. A few pounds carried over a part of the 
machine never intended for weight carrying will 
“ slow ” you more than twice the amount carried in 
the proper place. A good luggage carrier, fitted in 
the usual position over the driving wheel, and one of 
those admirable handle-bar “ bike ” bags, ob¬ 
tainable of almost any cycle dealer, will distribute the 
weights you must carry very evenly. Look at 
Sketch 1, there you have the ideal touring mount, 
but it should be mentioned that, although the gear 
case is a very comforting thing to have upon a 
bicycle, in these days of good roller chains it is not 
a necessity. 

It will rain just when we do not want it to, and if 
one is perhaps a hundred miles out, it is just a case of 
putting up with the mud. Mud is a very nasty thing, 
it has a habit of flying round the guards until one’s 
boots at the end of a run are simply soaked. It is 
far from pleasant to have soaked boots when away 
from home, and the side-guard, shown on Sketch 3, is 
well worth the small sum asked for it by cycle dealers. 
I believe a pair of these guards, one for the front and 
another for the back wheel, now costs about 3s. The 
flap for the front mudguard (Sketch 2) is useful if 
you do not fit the side-guards ; it can be obtained 

G 





90 Hobbies 

at any cycle shop; some people when pushed use a 
cardboard flap of this kind, but, of course, it is but 
the makeshift of the moment. 

A speed gear is a blessing when touring, and will 
enable you to taekle most hills. 

If you live in London and want a good touring 
ground within reasonable distanee of the Metropolis, 
I suggest that you start about 4 a.m. for Basingstoke, 
thus leaving the Metropolis before traffie makes the 
going unpleasant, proceeding to Winehester, and 
thence on to Southampton. The roads are good, if 
a little bit hilly, but around Southampton they are 
fairly flat. After a day in “ The Liverpool of the 
South ” go on to Romsey, then through the New 
Forest to Lyndhurst, after whieh you might ride to 
Lymington. You can cross to the Isle of Wight in 
about half an hour. 

This is but one of the fine areas open to the 
southern tourist, and the effort involved is fully 
worth while when one considers the glorious scenery 
around Alton, New Alresford and other places 
touched by the undulating roads which give from the 
heights panoramic views of surrounding country 
spread out on either side. 

Save for the first-elass metalled roads, those in 
Hampshire—and more especially Wiltshire—are not 
of the finest surfaee onee you are off the beaten 
track. Sheep are largely responsible for this, so your 
tyres must be of the best. Cheap tyres were never 
an economy, and a series of bad punctures will upset 
the best of natures, even in holiday time. Another 
fascinating run may be made via Roehester to 
Canterbury, and thence through the coastal towns 





Outdoor Hobbies 91 

of Kent and Sussex, where old eastles and plaees rieh 
in historieal interest abound. 

It is as well to refrain from making out a time-sheet 
in advanee; rather should you progress easily 
aeeording to your fitness, friends and fellows you 
meet at odd villages and with whom you may 
eare to spend a little time, and the all-important 
question of good and reasonable aeeommodation. 

Again, do not burden yourself with too mueh kit; 
I have always advoeated the poliey of sending soiled 
linen home by pareel post. 

As regards daily mileage, about 110 miles ean be 
aehieved in a day—but not day by day. It is a good 
plan to start off with a really good day’s riding (pro¬ 
viding you are fit and have been using your mount 
fairly regularly), thus getting well away from your 
starting point. On “ foreign ” ground you ean 
take your time and really appreeiate the points of 





















































92 Hobbies 

interest in the towns and villages through which 
you pass. 

Keep your rear tyre well pumped up when tour¬ 
ing ; nothing slows one so much as a slack tyre. 
Hills you cannot avoid, but have the pluck to get off 
and walk them, if they are too stiff for riding in com¬ 
fort. It needs pluck sometimes to do this, but it is 
dangerous to attempt to ride a hill that is really 
beyond your powers. It is towards the end of the day 
that the hills begin to “ find you out.” When 
mounting long but not particularly steep hills, it 
sometimes eases the strain to work up in “tacks” 
(see dotted lines. Sketch 4). This zigzag mode of 
progression is very helpful at times. Beware of tram 
lines; never cross them as shown by the dotted lines 
W, on Sketch 5 ; R shows the proper angle. 

Do not attempt to ride too many miles in the day ; 
many tours are spoilt by so doing. Don’t go too 
fast and stop when you are tired ; that is the golden 
rule when touring. 






GEOLOGY AS A HOBBY 


F or the fellow who has not much cash to spare 
with which to buy expensive apparatus and 
things of that kind, and who takes an interest in 
things scientific, and loves Nature and the open air, 
geology is an almost ideal hobby. Almost every¬ 
where he goes he will find something to interest 
him. Railway cuttings will be more than mere 
trenches in the earth, and he will never be able to 
pass a sand or clay or chalk pit without stopping 
to investigate. If he is one of those who go for a 
seaside holiday each year he will not know a dull 
moment from the time he reaches the water’s edge 
until he comes away again. 

Geology is the science that tells us the history 
of our earth from those tremendously far-off days 
when it was a red-hot, glowing mass, until the present 
day when it is almost solid and comparatively cold. 
Not so cold as the moon ; but very cold when com¬ 
pared with the sun. 

Practically speaking, all the rocks and all the 
soil of our world have been deposited by the action 
of water. The exceptions are those of volcanic 
origin which have been thrust up, at some period 
or another, from the earth’s molten interior. Such 
imeoiis rocks mav be seen in Cornwall, round Land’s 

o 

End, and in the mountain masses of North Wales, 
Scotland and Ireland, to name a few places. 

From the igneous rocks you may collect beautiful 
specimens of crystals and crystalline formations ; 

93 


Hobbies 


94 

but, from them, you will not be able to read much 
geologic history. It is the w'ater-deposited rocks 
that are the most interesting, for they contain fossils^ 
or animal remains that have been turned into a 
kind of stone, and preserved through countless ages. 
From these fossils scientists have been able to trace 
the gradual evolution and perfecting of life on the 
earth, and by means of these fossils you can tell 
to what period of the earth’s history any particular 
deposit belongs. 

In the beginning, as the earth cooled, a tremendous 
quantity of water vapour w'as evolved and accumu¬ 
lated in great cloud masses. Presently these clouds 
broke and descended in tremendous, drenching 
storms that swept bits and particles of the higher 
portions of the crumpled surface into the valleys. 
Thus we have the beginning of the stratified or water- 
deposited rocks. Nobody knows, nobody can tell, 
how long a period of time has elapsed since these 
first stratified rocks were left in the larva valleys 
of the cooling earth surface by the awful storms 
of the early atmosphere. It may be eighty millions 
of years—or it may be eight hundred millions of 
years. 

Nor do we know when and how life began on 
the earth. Mr. II. G. Wells, in his wonderful “ Out¬ 
line of History,” suggests, and here he is backed 
by many eminent authorities, that the first life 
was a kind of green scum that came into being on 
the edges of the first lakes and seas. The early 
stratified rocks bear no traces of this early life, for 
it had no hard parts that could be preserved. It 
was only when the living organisms began to develop 






Outdoor Hobbies 95 



SEDIMENTARY 
' . ROCKS 

Drift 

Pliocnte] CAIN'O^Oro 
. 1 / lOixni: I O' 
Eoctni J TEKTIAKY 

Orttaccoui q 

Ntocommn g 

Sandstoius & Clayi ^ 

Oolitic -2 

O 

Liasiic 
Tnassic 
Permian 


Coat 

Meanires 

(\hale% ^ snnrt\lon'X 
xv*ih %ram$ (ij cooO 


shells and skeletons that their remains were pre¬ 
served through eountless ages to tell us the wonders 
of the youth of 
the world. 

Geologists 
have now plaeed 
all the stratified 
roeks in order, 
or sequence, ac¬ 
cording to the 
gradual evolu¬ 
tion of the re¬ 
mains of life 
which they con¬ 
tain. There is 
still a great deal 
of work to be 
done, though, 
and the hum¬ 
blest student, 
provided that 
he knows what 
he is looking 
for, and what 
he is looking at 
when he has 


Millilo'ie 
Grit 

Carboui/eroui rt 
Liiiieileiie 2 

o 
o 

Old Red 
Sanditone ? 


Devonian 


T 3 

» 

Silurian 5 

(time loncs ^ 
sanUilonKS 
% shatei i ^ 
Caiiihrinn 
(timeiloii''i 
elalei, ilaeilo’iei, 
<J- g'lli i'el 


Pre~cambrian 
(I Lourenhan 
o/ (i(ih America wrtfi 
Eoeoon} 

METAMORPHIC 

ROCKS 

Client 
Schists &c 

IGNEOUS 

KOCKS 

Granite 

Trap Rods 
( Prirphi/rits, 

Hnxnds , (iranitett 
Oreenitones ) 


OUnd it, may Story of the Earth 

nake a big dis 

lovery. It is not so very long ago that a youngster of 
lineteen made a discovery of the utmost importance 
n the Isle of Wight, where he was spending his 
lolidays, and was called before the Geological 
lociety to describe his discovery and exhibit the 


















































































Hobbies 


0 

fossils he had collected. It might easily be your 
luck to find out something unknown before. 

We have said that one of the chief recommenda¬ 
tions of geology as a hobby is that it is very cheap 
to indulge in. You do not require any expensive 
apparatus. You can, in fact, do quite a lot of fossil 
collecting with nothing more than a strong clasp- 
knife and a lot of old match boxes in which to store 
the smaller of your specimens. If you are going to 
work on any but the softest rocks, though, you will 
need some sort of a hammer, with one end shaped 
like a small pick. It is possible to get coal hammers 
weighing between one and two pounds that are 
just the thing. For working in softish sands and 
clays an old garden trowel is very useful. 

Fossils are almost always the remains of sea, 
or river, or lake-dwelling creatures that have lived 
and died in the water and whose harder parts have 
been covered by sediment before they disintegrated, 
* or the remains of land-dwelling creatures that have 
been drowned or have been swept or fallen into 
the water after death. In this case, too, it is usually 
only the hard parts that have been preserved, such 
as horns and bones and things of that kind. In 
the case of vegetable remains it is often only the 
impression of leaf or branch or twig that remains, 
the actual material having entirely disappeared. 
In some cases, both vegetable and animal, the 
original material has been entirely replaced by 
some new mineral of a harder and more durable 
nature. 

Directly you begin to collect fossils you will 
want to know to what period of the earth’s history 






Outdoor Hobbies 


97 


your finds 
belong, and 
so we cannot 
do better 
than discuss 
the main 
chapters of 
that fascina¬ 
ting history 
now. These 
main chap¬ 
ters have 
been given 
rather hard 
names ; but 
as they are 

understood by geologists all over the world it is worth 
while to remember them and use them. Without 
troubling about any but the most important of the 
subdivisions, the following list will give you a ground¬ 
work on which to build your knowledge as you 
acquire it. 



Part of one of the ferns of coal 


THE MAIN ROCK CHAPTERS IN THE 
WORLD’S HISTORY 

The Azoic (Lifeless).—The earliest water-formed 
sedimentary or stratified rocks. Not much in evidence 
in this country, but great surfaces of them are exposed 
in Canada. 

The Proterozoic (Beginning of Life) Rocks.— 
Sedimentary, but much altered by heat and pressure like 
the Azoic. Vestiges of simple plants and markings that 
may have been made by worm-like creatures have been 
found. Also the skeletons of microscopic creatures. 












































































































































gS Hobbies 

(Note. —These two divisions probably account for 
some hundreds of millions of years of the earth’s history. 
Associated with them are those rocks called Fundamental 
Gneiss, found in the Isle of Lewis and elsewhere, which 
are supposed to be the actual rocks which formed as the red- 
hot world cooled, and from which the earliest sedimentary 
rocks were w'ashed by the torrential rains and thunder¬ 
storms of the world’s youth.) 

The Palaeozoic (Ancient Life or Primary).—These 
were mostly of marine origin; that is to say, they were 
deposited beneath early seas. They are divided into two 
series, the Lower and Upper, and in this country are 
to be found in Shropshire and Wales. The fossils to be 
found are mostly shells, remains of sponges, and such 
like. A very wonderful thing about some of the shells is 
that they belong to families like Lingula and Rhijncho- 
nella, of which living species are still to be found in 
the sea. Ripple markings formed by tides millions of 
years ago are sometimes found near Church Stretton, 
and in other places where these rocks are exposed. One 
of the characteristic fossils of the Palseozoic Series is 
the Trilobite. They were something like the Woodlice 
of our own days, but lived and swam in the sea. The 
Upper Primary contain Old Red Sandstone and Devonian 
Series, and the famous Carboniferous or Coal-measure 
Series. This represents a long period, some millions of 
years, of conditions that favoured the growth of dense 
forests rooted in swamps. The animal life was repre¬ 
sented by shell-fish in increasing numbers, wdth heavily 
scaled swimming fish and amphibious creatures like 
gigantic newts. 

The Mesozoic (Middle Age or Age of Reptiles) repre¬ 
sents another space of some millions of years. During 
this age reptiles flourished and grew to gigantic proportions. 
There were, besides, any amount of shell-fish. Rocks of 
the Lower Middle Age may be found at Sw'anage, Lyme 
Regis, in Gloucestershire, Sussex, the Isle of Wight, and 
many other places in this country. These rocks are 
generally called the “ Oolitic ” Series. The Upper Middle 





f 


Outdoor Hobbies 99 


Age is represented in this country by the enormously 
thick chalk formations and the green sands. 

The Cainozoic (Recent Life—the age of mammals) 
represents another period of some millions of years and 
brings us up to historical times. Evidently some great 
change in the world’s climate led to the rapid extinction 
of the huge reptiles of the previous age, for they utterly 
disappear, leaving but a few mean representatives behind. 
We still find shells in the deposits, any amount of them, 
and very beautiful some of these fossils are ; but the 
characteristic fossils are the bones and teeth of mammals. 
It is usual to divide the Cainozoic or Tertiary period 
into four. The earliest—the Eocene (dawn of recent 



The Trilobite Fossils of the Carboniferous System 

life)—is a special favourite with geologists living in and 
near London, for it consists of the London clay, the 
Woolwich and Reading Beds and the Thanet Beds, and some 
wonderfully prolific beds in south Hampshire and the 
south-west of the Isle of Wight, where the young scientist 
can pick up fossil shells from the cliffs to his heart’s delight. 
The Miocene, the second period, is hardly represented 
in this country. The third period—the Pliocene—can 
be well studied as to its fossils in the Norwich crags and 
red crags, whilst the recent and Post-Glacial (after the 
Ice Age) beds afford some grand excitement in the finding 
of the bones and teeth of the mammoth and the flint 
implements of early man. I have myself found many 
mammoth bones and teeth and flint “ scrapers ” in the 
brick earth pits near Grayford in Kent. It should be 




















100 Hobbies 


mentioned that the Cainozoic Age was a time when the 
surface of the earth shrunk and crumpled very much. 
Most of the great mountain ranges were extruded during 
this age. 

So much for the main outlines of our earth’s 
history. For more complete details you will have 
to go to a good textbook of elementary geology. 
I can recommend that by Professor Geikie, but 
any elementary work will serve your purpose. 

And now it is high time that we went out on 
a real geologizing jaunt. Let us pack a haversack 
with the essentials. We shall want a dozen or so 
of old matchboxes, each with a piece of white paper 
pasted on the lid, and some of them stuffed with 
cotton-wool. A couple of newspapers should also 
be packed, in case anything big should come our 
w^ay and need packing carefully to prevent it from 
getting chipped or broken. The hammer will be 
in the bag for a start, and in our pockets we each 
carry a stout knife. One of us has that garden 
trowel of which we spoke previously—it can go in 
the haversack if there is any room. 

We are going to Herne Bay for our first trip, 
because it is one of the places where the interesting 
London clay crops out. 

As we journey down there in the train let us 
have a little chat about strata and the curious ways 
in which they lie. If the various stratified rocks 
had resulted from an even layer of water all over 
the earth they would have been in level layers, and 
we could not have got at any but the topmost ones 
save by mining or burrowing. As we know, the very 
first deposits were laid down in valleys in the crumpled 





Outdoor Hobbies loi 

surface of the earth, and ever since the earth’s crust 
has been crumpling and contracting, so that what 
was a valley at one period might be on a mountain 
top during the next. 

Also we must remember that differences in 
climates through the ages, sometimes quite hot 
and sometimes very cold, have made a difference 
to the extent of seas and lakes. In a very cold 
period much of the water was solidified in the form 
of ice, and the seas receded when the ice did not 
melt. All this has resulted in a happy state of 
things for the geologist, in that at some place or 
other it is possible to find nearly all the pages in 
the earth’s wonderful history from the first to the 
very last. 



Eocene Fossils 


















Hobbies 


102 

This state of things has been aided by the big 
upheavals of mountain ehains during early recent 
times—ancient when compared with history, but 
recent when measured as a geologist measures time. 
The “ everlasting ” hills that we know are only 
recent features of the landscape to the geologist. 
When the mountains were thrust up they crumpled 
and tilted all the strata that were not already tilted 
and crumpled. 

The geologist has to learn to measure the dip 
and inclination of the tilted strata. If he has 
much experience at his hobby he can very often make 
a very shrewd guess as to how deep beneath the 
neighbouring strata that particular one will go, 
and where it will come up again. This is very useful 
in mining and prospecting. Of course, you know 
that the chalk runs right under London, and appears 
on the surface both north and south of the metropolis. 
The London clay lies in a cup of chalk and appears 
again under the New Forest. 

When we reach Herne Bay we go at once to the 
shore and examine the clay cliffs. If we keep our 
eyes open where the clay meets the shingle of the 
shore, particularly where there have been fresh 
falls, we shall soon be rewarded with our first 
fossils. These will probably be the teeth of a species 
of shark and may measure anything from half an 
inch to two or three inches from tip to crown. The 
remarkable thing about these teeth is the freshness 
of their appearance. It seems almost impossible that 
they are at least a million or two years old. They 
look as though they had just dropped out of the 
jaw of a recently killed sea-tiger. 






Outdoor Hobbies 


103 


There is no need to be particularly careful of 
these teeth. They will not break, and there are lots 
of them. Fill a matchbox with the best specimens 
and carefully label it “ London Clay, Herne Bay,” 
and the date. Always label your box directly you 
have placed a specimen or specimens in it. There 
is nothing more annoying than to forget where 
you got a particular specimen from. 

Now we will proceed to look for other treasures. 
From the London clay we may pick a few specimens 
of fossil wood and fruits and a shell or so. Also 
we will keep our eyes open for the Thanet Sands, 
which also crop out hereabouts. They may yield 
the fragile shell of a nautilus, which will want 
packing in cotton-wool at once, as well as other shells 
of tougher build. 

The great thing about a geological expedition is 
always to keep your eyes open. I have known 
three or four persons who were supposed to be 
keen geologists pass over a treasure that was absolutely 
sticking out of the earth asking to be picked up. 
Youneed keeneycs 


drag it out, 
in clay or 
may break it. 
way is to 


plunge at it 


If you 
a specimen 
on the sur- 


a n d you 
how to use 
ing should 





come upon 
exposed 


and try to 


should know 
them. Noth- 


escape you. 


even if it is 
sand, or you 
The proper 
work it out 


Part of thin slice of Limestone 
(Carboniferous) 






Hobbies 


104 

carefully, with knife, trowel, or piek, according to the 
hardness of the medium, working several inches from 
the speeimen and feeling carefully all the time in case 
another speeimen is lying hidden close to the first. 
When you have it lying in your hand, you can clean 
off the worst of the material clinging to it and pack 
it in two or three sheets of newspaper, or in one of 
your boxes. 

When geologizing in sueh places as Freshwater 
Bay, in the Isle of Wight, where specimens can often 
be picked up by the handful, you need not worry 
about keeping them separate in your boxes. See 
that there is sufficient packing in the box to prevent 
delicate shells from breaking by rubbing and knock¬ 
ing against one another, and leave the sorting till 
later on. 

Though hunting for specimens and finding them 
is great fun, I think that identifying and mounting 
them is better fun still. Directly you have your 
first specimens you will want to find out what they 
are, and you should lose no time in visiting the 
geological section of your local museum, if you 
have not already done so. You will there see the 
best method of mounting and exhibiting your speci¬ 
mens. You will also be able to find out the Latin 
or scientific name of your specimen. If you are in 
any difficulty do not hesitate to ask to see the curator 
of the section. These gentlemen are only too glad 
to help the beginner in every way. You will pick 
up any amount of information from them if you 
only remember to ask intelligent questions, and 
then listen with ears wide open. 

You will probably find that the specimens in 





Outdoor Hobbies 105 



Fishes from the old red sandstone of Scotland 
a. The Winged Fish. b. Fish with cranial buckles 

the museum, cleaned, and in some rare cases, such 
as the Thanet sands fruits, soaked in paraffin wax 
that has been melted almost to boiling point, are 
mounted with a little fish-glue on a small square 
of board on which a piece of grey-blue paper has been 
pasted. Beneath the specimen is a label on which 
is printed or written the name of the specimen, 
the formation and the locality in which it was found. 
Like this— 


OSTREA BELLOVACINA 
London Clay. Herne Bay. 


This tells anyone who looks at the specimen 
that it is an oyster of the named species, and that 
it was found in the London clay at Herne Bay. 
Some collectors add' in small figures the date the 
specimen was found. 

As your specimens increase it will be most con¬ 
venient to keep them in nests of drawers, and soon 

H 











io6 


Hobbies 



A Quartz Crystal 


you will find that you have sections containing a 
few specimens from nearly all the main divisions 
of the earth’s history, with a specially large section 
of the fossils of your own district. 

As soon as you possibly can make friends with 
other geologists. You will then rapidly enrich 

your collection by exchange, and 
though there is nothing like finding 
a specimen all by yourself, it is nice 
to have specimens from parts of the 
country you are not able to visit. 

In many of the technical institutes of the big 
cities there are classes in geology held during the 
winter. If you are lucky enough to be near such 
an institute join the class for the winter months. 
That is the way to learn and to make friends with 
people who have the same tastes as you yourself have. 

If you make geology your hobby it is not necessary 
to confine yourself to Palceontology, as the collecting 
of fossils and the study of the succession of life on 
the earth is called. Many fellows find searching 
for and collecting minerals more interesting; but 
they are usually those who live in districts where 
there is an abundance of volcanic or igneous rocks. 
I think that a small collection of mineral specimens 
should form part of every geologist’s collection. 
Nicely mounted crystals shining in the light always 
look brighter to the casual visitor than fossils, 
which seldom have any colour but a dull brown or 
grey. When people who do not understand geology 
wish to look at your collection, it is worth while 
to have something pretty to show. 

If you are keen, you will find that as you progress 










Outdoor Hobbies 


107 


in geological knowledge you will have to extend 
your studies. Geology is the most liberal and least 
specialized of sciences, and that is another reason 
why it is a good hobby for the fellow who likes 
science but can only give a portion of his time to 
it. You will find, before long, that you are making 
excursions into the realms of chemistry and zoology 
and comparative anatomy. 

In this chapter it has been impossible to give 
more than a hint why geology is a good and inter¬ 
esting study to take up, and to give you the main 
outlines of what it is and how you can set about 
collecting. At first you will probably be very 
bothered to tell what your fossils are, beyond the 



A Corkscrew 
Fossil 


Celts from the Lacustrine 
Habitations 


shell families very easily and naming your specimens 
at once. 

A final hint goes back to the question of the 










io 8 Hobbies 

amount of cleaning you should do to your speci¬ 
mens. This depends very largely on the deposit 
from which it was taken, and the state of preserva¬ 
tion. Shells from the Eocene of the Isle of Wight 
are usually perfectly clean directly they are dry 
and you have shaken the dirt from them, as are 
bones from the Kentish brick earths. Fossils from 
harder rocks will need very careful chipping with 
knife and possibly chisel to get away the maximum 
amount of the matrix. Your aim should be to have 
a clean-looking specimen, showing all its character¬ 
istics, without unduly weakening it. Do not discard 
a broken specimen. It may be rare even in a broken 
state, and you may never find a complete specimen. 

People who are recommended to take up geology 
as a hobby occasionally ask what there is to be 
made out of it. The answer is that nothing is to 
be made out of it, save many happy hours and a 
great deal of knowledge. If you have plenty of 
time to devote to it and are clever with your fingers, 
so that you can turn out really excellently mounted 
specimens, you may find a market for your duplicates 
with one or other of the natural history dealers. 
You will obtain their addresses in such papers as 
“ Nature,” and in the official organs of the Geological 
Society and the Geological Association. Membership 
of the Society gives you the right to put “ F.G.S.” 
after your name ; but you must have done some 
good work for the science before you can be elected. 
Anyone who is interested in the science can join the 
Association, and very well worth while it is to join. 
The address of the secretary is Geological Society, 
Burlington House. 






ANGLING 



LTHOUGH the tackle used should be the best 


that one can afford, it is a mistake to think 
that expensive rods, baits, and reels, will mean more 
fish. Costly tackle is only better made and possesses 
more refinements than the cheaper kind, which 
naturally makes it more pleasant to handle, but 
this—with the exception of fly rods—should not 
trouble the average boy. I pulled out the best 
pike I ever caught, with my son’s rod, which 
cost five shillings, whilst my own was being 
varnished. 

However, a good rod will outlast several inferior 
ones, and some indication of the price of them may 
prove interesting. A bottom-fishing rod may be 
purchased from 12s. 6d., which will serve for all 
ordinary coarse fishing. In no case should more 
than £l be paid for a rod of this description, and 
at that price it should be a first-rate one. A spinning 
rod may be purchased for £l, which will give good 
service, if it is varnished once a year with some 
good clear boatmaker’s varnish. I would, however, 
recommend the angler to spend a shilling or two on 
the purchase of a set of porcelain lined rings, which 
he should substitute for the brass ones which will 
be fitted when purchased. Brass rings wear very 
quickly, through the friction caused by the line 
passing over them, and after a time, quickly wear 
the line. Porcelain rings allow the line to slip 
through without any friction, and the line will last 


109 


no Hobbies 

ten times as long as it would if brass^ rings were 
being used. A fly rod can be bought for £l, but 
it is not a useful tool, being as a rule cheaply ringed 
and badly balanced. A better plan would be to 
expend the same amount on a second-hand one, 
which may be of greenheart or split cane. A split 
cane one is the angler’s ideal, but as a rule is the 
most costly of all. They can, however, be picked 
up cheaply at times ; I had one offered to me last 
season for 30s., which cost £5 the previous year. 
For a roach rod, 12s. 6d. will be ample, and should 
be a good one at this price. 

Except for fly rods, I do not care for one made 
of all greenheart, it being too flexible for the lower 
parts of the rods. For top joints it is splendid, as 
it can be drawn down to an exceedingly fine size 
without becoming brittle. Ash and willow are 
generally used for the second joints or butts, but 
East India cane also makes a very nice rod, which 
although stiff, will give to the frantic plunges of 
“ that big one ” when you hook him. 

The top and bottom rings of rods, other than 
spinning rods, from their meeting with the greatest 
friction, should be of steel and not brass, for in¬ 
expensive rods. Bridge rings are preferable to snake 
rings. 

Reels or winches are usually made of metal or 
wood, although in the more expensive types, ebonite 
and aluminium are used for lightness. As the reel 
is a most important consideration—for a day’s sport 
may be spoiled by an inefficient winch—it is false 
economy to buy a cheap reel. For fly fishing a 
light all-brass 2j-inch reel can be purchased for 







Outdoor Hobbies m 


12s. 6d., which can be depended upon, or second¬ 
hand it might be picked up for 5s. It should be 
fitted with a check both ways. For spinning, a 
4-inch reel, which will give satisfaction, can be got 
for as low as 6s., fitted with a check action which 
can be disconnected for the casting. 

Here again, it pays to buy a good reel, and if 
one of the centre-pin type can be purchased second¬ 
hand, it will give endless satisfaction, and last a life¬ 
time. A very much longer cast can be made with 
this type of reel, and it can be got second-hand for 
as low as 10s. 6d. 

Now, as regards lines, buy the best obtainable. 
Cheapness here is money wasted, as the quality is 
bad, and they very soon become unreliable after 
immersion in the water. A silk line costing 3s. 6d. 
will outlast half a dozen hemp ones, and you always 
have the comfortable feeling that such a line will 
hold any fish which you are likely to catch. For 
spinning, a dressed silk one is far the best, as it does 
not tangle so easily as an undressed line, should it 
chance to overrun, neither does it twist up through 
the action of the spinner in the water, as does the 
undressed line. A dressed line is certainly some 
2s. dearer than the undressed, but you will save 
more than two shillings worth of temper by the initial 
expenditure. 

Lines, whether dressed or undressed, will quickly 
rot and become unreliable if left to dry on the winch. 
For this reason, however tired you may be, always 
make a point of unwinding the line after a day’s 
fishing, in order to give it a ehance to dry. The best 
method of doing this is to wind the line round and 






Hobbies 


II2 

round the back of a chair. Undressed lines are im¬ 
proved and made waterproof by rubbing with a dress¬ 
ing each time after use (when dry), made by melting 
half a wax candle in a sixpenny pot of yellow vaseline. 
It should be well rubbed in, and the surplus after¬ 
wards rubbed off with a clean cloth. Dressed lines 
naturally do not require this attention. 

For bottom fishing, gut is required, and here 
again it pays to buy the very best. Cheap gut is 
dull-looking stuff, which frays quickly where the 
hooks are bound on, and parts at most unexpected 
moments. Good gut is clear and transparent, and 
has a high polish. However, money is a considera¬ 
tion to the average boy, and cheapness may appeal 
for this reason. There is, however, an excellent 
substitute for gut which will do all that gut will do, 
and has advantages which the real article does not 
possess. This is about one half the price of the real 
gut, and is named gut substitute. Having found 
one so very reliable, I have not tried any other make, 
—and there are several, but the brand known as 
Jagut, and manufactured by S. Allcock and Co., 
Ltd., of Redditch, is an absolutely dependable article. 
It will hold anything, provided the right gauge is used, 
and lasts practically for ever, never fraying as does 
the real article. One caution is necessary when using 
the substitute, and that is it must always be soaked 
for at least half an hour before tying. Number 13, 
which has a breaking strain of 27 lb. dead weight, 
costs ninepence for five yards, and will hold the most 
ferocious pike you are ever likely to get hold of. 
The finer grades are cheaper still, number 5, which 
has a breaking strain of II lb., costs about one penny 










Outdoor Hobbies 113 

a yard, and is about the right thickness for making 
up fly casts. 

I need hardly touch upon fly fishing, as the 
average boy does not get a chance to use this type 
of bait. There is very little free water where a fly 
may be used, although on the Thames some good 
sport may be had with a dry fly in the summer 
among the dace. Avoid flies already tied to gut, 
as the fish can see the loops. The eyed flies, which 
are tied direct to the gut cast, are more quickly 
attached than the looped ones. I shall mention a 
very good knot for fixing these flies when I speak 
of knots for use in fishing. Of baits one cannot 
speak unless the kind of fishing is known. For 
bottom fishing, worms, paste, bread, gentles, and 
cheese, are used. 

Gentles may be easily obtained in the summer 
by putting a piece of meat in the open where the 
blue-bottle flies can impregnate it with their eggs. 
These hatch out and very quickly produce the 
maggots. They can be purchased at almost any 
butcher’s, whilst at Keighley in Yorkshire, there 
are several “ maggot kings ” who make a living 
from the production of these effective if somewhat 
offensive baits. Worms, especially the lobs, can be 
obtained on any lawn after a heavy shower, or can 
be dug up in the garden. Paste is made by mixing 
flour and water together until it forms a stiff dough. 
Bread is stale loaf soaked in water and then squeezed 
in a cloth until all the water is extracted. A little 
bran mixed with it, helps it to bind and remain 
longer on the hook. Cheese is used just as it is, 
o-r pounded small and mixed in with the bread or 









114 Hobbies 

flour. It is a very effective bait for roach and 
chub. 

Spinning baits are without number, and no one 
is better than another. They are generally expensive, 
but one or two good ones can be made at home. 
Of these I shall speak later, showing how they can 
be made from any old tin, spoon, or piece of motor 
inner tube. 

Leads, other than the split shot used for bottom 
fishing, are necessary and expensive, but here again 
I will show you how to make them cheaply. 

Floats can be made from either wood, cork, or 
quills, and are so well known that a description is 
hardly necessary. One of the best is the quill, and 
which can be manufactured from the wing feather 
of a swan or goose. The feather portion is stripped 
off, and cleaned up by running a lighted match down 
it. The quill is then cut at the feather end until 
of the desired length, split for an inch, and one of 
the halves removed. A brass ring is next slipped 
over the remaining split portion,which is turned up 
and over the ring, and afterwards bound securely 
with cobbler’s waxed thread. The bottom portion 
may then be painted green, and the part which 
appears above the water, red. A rubber ring which 
may be made by cutting off a section of rubber 
acetylene gas tubing, such as is used on motor lamps, 
completes the float. 

So much then for the necessary tackle. The fish 
which may be caught during the summer months 
include roach, perch, chub, bream, dace, rudd, tench, 
trout, and pike. Of these, roach, perch, dace, and 
pike are likely to provide the principal quarry. 








Outdoor Hobbies 115 

Rudd and barbel are essentially river fish, and the 
same may be said of the coarse ungainly chub. 
Trout may also be caught in some of the free waters, 
notably the Thames, where they run to 6 lb. ; as a 
matter of fact the smallest which may be taken in 
this river is 16 inches ! Some trout ! you say ; well, 
you should see a 6-pounder. 

Some sport may be had among the pike, although 
this fish is not really in condition until September or 
October. Previous to these months (it may be taken 
from June 16th in the Thames) it will be found to 
be very lean and flabby, for it is recuperating after 
spawning. The preponderance of weeds and rushes, 
where they have their hides and lairs, makes it very 
difficult to spin or live-bait for them. However, as 
in my opinion pike and perch are the only fresh water 
fish worth eating, with, of course, the exception of 
the trout—and there are not many of them in the 
free water—it is not a waste of time to try for either. 
Both pike and perch may be caught on an artificial 
spinner, and when you get a perch in this way, you 
can bet your bottom dollar that he’ll be a big one. 
That’s the beauty of spinning; you may get either 
pike or perch or both. 

In the summer months, the pike haunt the reed 
beds some thirty yards from the banks. It is only 
during the winter when the river is swollen by flood, 
or in the spring, when they are spawning, that the 
big ones come in close to the bank. The little pike 
weighing from 1 to 2 lb. are close in, and will often 
make a grab and come struggling in at the end of 
your line. They are somewhat of a nuisance when 
paternostering for perch with the live niinnow. This 







Hobbies 


ii6 

method of fishing for perch, or the use of a lob worm 
on a paternoster is also deadly if there are any 
perch about; and where you find one, there are 
usually several others. With pike, if you get one, 
there may be one other near at hand, but not more. 
It is, therefore, not advisable to continue to fish 
one spot after taking out one or two pike. 

Spinning in summer, either with the intention 
of catching pike or perch, must be done rapidly, or 
you will find your lure hung up in the weeds, and if 
your line is not a good one, it may stay there. You 
can always tell the bite of a pike from that of the 
perch. A pound perch has ten times the fight in 
him that a four pound pike will have. The pike 
gives a sullen tug, and on finding himself hooked, 
will immediately try to go to the bottom of the 
river. Here he will shake your line like a terrier 
does a rat, and then lie quiet again. In summer, 
after this, he allows himself to be drawn in without 
much trouble. If he should come to the surface 
and sit on his tail, at the same time glaring at you 
and shaking his open jaws vigorously, circumvent 
his intention of shaking out the hooks, by letting 
the line become slack at once. If you keep your 
line tight, he is almost certain either to break or 
shake out the hooks, for the pike does not appear to 
feel pain at all. 

Now, with the perch, it is a different matter 
altogether. He sees your spinner passing, flips up 
his tail and goes after it, grabbing it manfully, for 
he is a generous biter. Then, feeling himself hooked, 
he determines to fight for his life. Off he goes, 
pulling the line after him, your rod point jerking 








Outdoor Hobbies 117 

with his vigorous tugs. With fine tackle he will 
give you nearly as good a fight as a trout, and when 
landed is a sweet, firm fish if fried in his scales. 

Barbel are usually caught with ledger tackle, 
and are a large gamely fighting fish. They are 
generally found in pools near weir streams, or in 
the channel of the river where the stream is not 
very heavy. If you use lob worms, gentles, or cheese 
paste, you may come across one. They rush up and 
down and across the river when hooked, and bore 
and plunge towards snags in their endeavour to 
smash up the tackle. Keep the rod well up, and 
only give line when you fear for the safety of your 
top-joint. 

The chub is a river fish, but except for the sport 
of catching, they are a useless, coarse fish. They 
generally choose shady pieces of water under a bank, 
or clump of willows, and weir pools. They afford 
good sport with the fly, using a large Zulu, or Red 
Palmer, but they do not give much fight. On being 
hooked they make one mighty dive, which if your 
line is tight means losing the fish, and then come 
along like a lamb. Good baits for float use are 
cheese paste, boiled shrimps, live minnow, frog, 
cockroach, wasp, humble-bee, or almost any grub. 
In the cherry season, if a white-heart cherry is gently 
floated down, it will almost surely bag him. You 
can see chub from the peculiar manner they have 
of rising their top fins out of the water, and slowly 
sinking again. That clear unruffled patch under 
those willows, suddenly becomes broken water, as 
some six or seven fins rise above the surface. If 
you see them, don’t at once rush up, rod in hand. 








ii8 Hobbies 

That will put them off the feed for the rest of the 
day. Crawl up within reaeh on your stomach, and 
gently float down a fly, or other bait. Then if one 
takes it, don’t let him make a splash when drawing 
him in, or you’ll have no more chub from that piece 
of water. He is most painfully shy, and the mere 
passage of a boat past him, will give his nerves such 
a shock, that he says “ no thank you ” to any tempt¬ 
ing morsels which you may pass down for his benefit. 

Good sport may be had among the dace with the 
fly, and when hooked he makes a very good show for 
his size. But a half-pound dace is considered quite 
a good fish ; from which you will see that they do 
not run big. They are, moreover, frightfully bony, 
and only a boy with plenty of time would tackle 
one for his breakfast. Apart from the bones, it is 
a nice clean, sweet fish. ' * 

The Thames trout is the fish, if you can catch 
him, being as game as a salmon, and splendid on 
the table. lie is mostly found near the weir pools 
(which are private fishing usually), but now and then 
he is taken in the main river itself. Spinning or live 
baiting with minnow, using light gut tackle, is the 
way to catch him. Then you can make up your mind 
that he’s going to give you half an hour’s fun, and in 
all probability break you before the end of that time. 
Up the river he’ll rush for forty yards, and as suddenly 
turn. Then out of the water he’ll leap, and if your 
line is tight, whoosh ! he falls on it, and away he 
goes. May you have the luck to test your skill 
against his. 







KNOTS FOR ANGLERS 


^ I ''HERE are numerous knots used in the tying 
of guts and lines, in order to produee a coup¬ 
ling which will not slip or come untied when sub¬ 
jected to the strains imposed upon them by the 
efforts of a fish in its death struggles. Perhaps the 
most useful for tying two pieces of gut together is 
that illustrated by a, b and c (Fig. 1). The ends of 
the gut, previously softened, are laid side by side, hold¬ 
ing them with the left forefinger and thumb, so that 
the ends overlap at least half an inch. Then with 
the right hand form a loop of the two to the right, 
passing the ends through as at a, and again through 
as at B. Then take the ends in each hand and draw 
tight. The resulting knot will be seen in illustration 
c, and is the one found on all bought gut casts. 

For joining lines or gut, the knot known as “ The 
Fisherman’s Knot ” is one that will never slip and, 
moreover, is easily tied ; quite the simplest of all 
knots, to my thinking. The method of tying it is as 



Fig. 1 

follows : Take the two ends of the line and lay them 
with the ends pointing in opposite directions, i.e., 
one to the left and the other to the right. Then 

taking one of the ends, make a single granny knot 

119 











120 Hobbies 

round the other line, and draw fairly tightly, but 
not enough to prevent its slipping. Do the same 
with the other loose end, only this time the granny 
knot is made on the other line. Then pull the two 
granny knots tight, and by pulling on each line, they 
will draw together and make a knot which for neat¬ 
ness and strength will take some beating. After 
pulling the knot quite tight, the ends may be slipped 
off closely. Fig. d shows method. 

A loop which will not slip is useful to know, especi¬ 
ally for those who use spinning baits. Fig. e shows 
first movement and f the knot loose, whilst g illus- 




Flg. 2 



trates the neatness and firmness of the loop. To 
make this loop-knot the line is turned over at one 
end for about 3 in. A large loose loop is now formed, 
but not tightened. The loop is then passed under, 
through, and over the middle aperture in the line. 
Then holding the end of the line, the finger is placed 
in the loop and drawn tight. It is one of the easiest 
knots to tie, and the loose end may be cut off close 
to the line without fear of drawing. 

The tying of eyed fly hooks to gut is extremely 
simple. Fig. 2 shows the method. The eyed hook 
is taken in the left hand with the eye pointing to the 
right. Pass the end of the gut through the eye, 
allowing some 2 in. to project. Then twist the end 
twice round the main gut, and pass the loose end 












Outdoor Hobbies 121 



Fig. 3A.—Old Spoon for 
Spoon-bait 



through the loop which will 
have formed near the hook. 

Then firmly holding the 
loose end, pull the main 
gut firmly, and the hook will be immovably fixed 
to the gut. The gut should, of course, have been 
soaked, and the end may be cut off close. 

There is a certain satisfaction about the making 
of your own baits, apart from the saving in expense. 
When you catch a fish on one of them, you get a 
great deal more satisfaction than if the spinner had 
cost you several shillings ; for has not the product 
of your hands baffled the brains of the fish ? 

Probably the simplest to make 
is the spoon. Any old spoon will 
do for the purpose. It can be 
cut off from the handle by means 
of a hack saw, the bowl part being 
used for the bait. Do not throw the handle away, 
for it can be utilized to make a dead-bait spinner. 

The spoon simply requires a ^ in. hole drilled in 
each end, through which, at the broad end, is placed a 
small split ring, to which is attached a large pike 
triplet. Another split ring is put through the hole 
at the other end of the spoon, 
and a small swivel threaded 
on to the ring, and the bait 
is completed. It may be made 
more attractive if the inside 
of the bowl is painted with scarlet lake or other 

red paint. 

To make a dead-bait spinner, place the handle of 
a tea-spoon in the vice and file it down on the flat 

I 


Fig. 3.—Completed 
Spoon-bait 



Fig. 3 b.—H ack-sawing 
Spoon handle 












122 Hobbies 

side until of the thickness of two postcards. Then 
place the flat side in the vice and file the handle part 
until it assumes a wedge shape measuring about 
three-sixteenths of an inch across. Now drill a hole 
in the handle end with the ^ in. drill. Then file 
the sides of the thinned handle until they assume a 
saw-like edge, or it may be done with the hack saw. 
Attach the hooks as in the illustration Fig. 3b, insert 
a ring through the hole, to which attach a swivel, 
and you have a dead-bait spinner which will hold 
the bait for some time without breaking up. The 
tail hooks are inserted into the dead-bait in such a 
manner that a slight curve is given to the fish used. 
This causes it to spin when drawn through the water. 

A most excellent and killing spinner may be made 
as in Fig. 4b from an old motor-car inner tube. Some¬ 
one will give you a piece if you ask them. Six inches 
is quite sufficient. Sketch on the rubber in ink the 
outline of a fish and cut it out with a pair of scissors. 
It should measure about 3J in. for pike. Make two 
of these. Then from an old tobacco or other stout 
tin, cut also with a pair of scissors (tin can be cut 
quite easily by this means) the portion in Fig. 4, 
which will form the spinning flanges. Attach hooks 
on wire to the body part of spinning flange, turn 
over nose of spinner and solder doAvn. Drill a 16 
hole through the head part of the spinner, attach 
ring and swivel, then sew on the two rubber sides 
of the bait. Paint the bait with some good alumi¬ 
nium or gold paint, on one side, and with scarlet or 
bright blue on the other, and you will have a most 
effective spinner at practically the cost of the hooks. 
It is quite as killing as, if not more so, than many of the 





Outdoor Hobbies 123 


baits sold at 3s. 6d. 
that it does not 
fish in the hand, 
It has the effeet 
daee when revol- 
Sprats are one of 
can be used for trout 
be purchased for as 
from November to 
should then be 
of 1 oz. of formalin 
In this solution they 


BEND OVER 
AND SOLDER 


BEND 



J- .1 

BEND / 


vJJP y 



o 


o 


o 


o 


o 


o * 

. - 


Fig. 4.— 
Tin Spinning 
Flanges 


to 5s. The fact 
look much like a 
does not matter, 
of a sprat or small 
ving in the water, 
the best baits which 
and pike. They can 
low as 2d. a pound 
February, and 
pickled in a solution 
to the pint of water, 
will keep perfectly 


for at least twelve months, and become so hard that 
they can be handled without fear of breaking or tearing 
them. Their cheapness makes them an ideal boy’s bait, 
apart from their killing nature. They may be used 
with a bait spinner, or on a flight of hooks, which 
causes the bait to roll and wabble in the water. I 
prefer the bait spinner, as this rolling motion some¬ 
times causes the pike to miss his strike. Only 
recently I was using one on a spinning flight, and 



Fig. 4 a.—O blong of Rubbers 



it was rolling most alluringly in a series of spirals. 
Then I saw a large pike dash madly at what he 
thought was a fish in distress, but the spiral motion 
beat him every time. Just as he was going to make 



































Hobbies 


124 

a grab, the bait twisted away in the opposite direction. 
I laughed at the antics which he performed in his 
endeavour to decide where the bait would spin to 
next. He followed that spinning sprat almost up to 
the edge of the river, twisting and turning in his 
endeavours to make a snap. Then, seeing me, I 
think he guessed that he had very nearly been “ had.” 

The spoon is also a first-rate bait for pike, and if 
it must be purchased, has the advantage of being 
the cheapest artificial bait one can buy. The Wag¬ 
tail, Cartman and Clipper are also excellent artificial 
baits, and are placed in order of cheapness, not merit; 
for the Wagtail is a splendid rubber bait. Once one 
learns to make the spinning flanges out of tin, the 
average boy will begin to devise fresh lures for him¬ 
self. I make dozens every year, and try each one in 
the water, before discarding or retaining the pattern. 
Pike, however, if on the feed are not critical, and will 
take anything w'hich moves in the water. 

It seems rather a waste of cash to pay 4d. for a 
sinker or lead, but which one must have if it is 
required to spin a bait. There are all shapes and 
sizes of leads, but for all-round use, one weighing 
half-an-ounce, for sluggish water, and another of 
one ounce, will be sufficient for any boy. The 
heavier weight is, of course, intended for rapid 
streams, or when it is desired to keep the bait nearer 
the bottom. Their manufacture is simple. Some 
copper wire, an old tin, lead, and fine sand, are 
required. The sand is placed in an old cocoa tin 
until almost level with the top. It can be used dry, 
but is better slightly damp. A piece of copper wire 
is then severed of sufficient length, generally about 





Outdoor Hobbies 125 

2| in., and the ends turned up into loops. An old 
tin-lid may be used in which to melt the lead. The 
tin of sand is now taken, and a blunt-pointed pencil 
or tapering penholder is thrust into the middle of 
the sand to a depth of 1J in. When this is with¬ 
drawn there will be a thin hole or depression in the 
centre of the tin of sand. Using care, push the 
looped wire carefully down the middle of this hole, 
until it touches the sand at the bottom of the hole. 
This will hold the wire upright when the fingers are 
removed. Then melt the lead, and pour it into the 
hole containing the wire, until the lead comes level 
with the sand. Remove, trim up, paint green, and 
you have a 4d. lead (See Figs. 5, 5a and 5b). 

At Pangbourne, near the weir pool, there is a 
little stream which runs into the Thames, named 
the Pang. About twenty yards up this stream is a 
little brick bridge, under which the big Thames trout 
love to stay. 

If you go down there any evening, you will see a 
boy sitting patiently on the bank just above the 
bridge, “ exercising ”—as he calls it—a minnow on 
the end of about fifteen yards of fine line. Some¬ 
times, if the big trout is at home, he manages to 
induce him to sample the bait, and a regular battle 
ensues. All the loafers in the neighbourhood seem 
to scent the conflict from afar, like vultures in the 
desert, and watch the struggle with interest. At 
other times the boy’s patience is tried to the limit of 
endurance, for under the bridge he can hear the 
heavy “ flop ” which his intended victim makes, as 
he takes every other minnow in the stream but the 
one attached to his three yards of gut. 








126 


Hobbies 


Last winter there was a leeture in the village on 
fishing. I took him. He stood the scientific de¬ 
scriptions of the different fishes, their history, past, 
present and future, for some time. But when the 
lecturer commenced with latin names for the fishes, 
and called the pike “ esox lucius,’' he whispered in a 
voice which could be heard all over the hall : “ Well, 
I thought this was to be a lecture on fishing ” I 
hope I haven’t bored you like that; and perhaps I 
may have given you a hint or two which will enable 
you to have heavier bags during the coming season. 



Fig. 5.—Lead and 
Wire after moulding 





Fig. 5A. —Showing 
how wire is bent 
into loops 


Fig. 5b. —Box of Sand 









Section III 

SCIENCE AS A HOBBY 


CHEMICAL EXPERIMENTS 


I_THE AIR 


T 3 EFORE we study the chemistry of the air we 
may as well learn what we can, by simple 
experiments, of its physical properties. Everything 
we do, with the object of finding out something, is 
an experiment, and the only way in which an ex¬ 
periment can be of any value is when its result is 
noted. From the very start of your experiments you 
should make a habit of writing down your experience : 
(a) Why the experiment was carried out. 

(h) What was done. Be very exact in this. 

(c) The result. In other words, what happened. 
{d) Your deductions, or what you learned. 

Simple observation has told you that there is an 
invisible something surrounding us on every side as 
we walk about the earth. We can feel its pressure 
as we run or cycle. We can see trees and leaves 
and smoke moving because of the pressure of this 
“ something ” when it is in motion. We cannot see 
it; but we can prove that it is there. 

Experiment 1 .—To prove that there is something 
which we call “ air.” 

This is the simplest experiment that you will 
perform. Turn an ordinary glass tumbler upside 
down and press it under the surface of water 

127 




Hobbies 


128 

contained, if possible, in a glass jar. You will see at 
once that the water is prevented from entering the 
tumbler. If you make an exact observation you 
will notice that the water does enter a little way, 
but not very far. If you think about this you will 
arrive at the conclusion that there must be some¬ 
thing in the tumbler which resists the water and 
prevents it from filling the tumbler. The fact that the 
water does enter a little way suggests that whatever 
is in the tumbler can be squeezed up or compressed. 

You have now performed an experiment and 
arrived at a conclusion. You are not quite satisfied. 
There may be some other reason why the water 
does not enter the tumbler. Very w'ell then. Press 
the tumbler right down under the water, taking care 
to keep it straight. Now tilt it slightly. Immedi¬ 
ately a bubble of something—we will call it air— 
rushes from the tumbler and ascends to the surface 
of the water, from which it escapes. There is now 
some water in the tumbler, and we can go on tilting 
the tumbler and allowing the air to bubble out until 
there is no more left and the tumbler is full of water. 
These two experiments together should be enough 
to convince you that there was something in the 
tumbler which we call air. As we did not put it 
there it must have come from the atmosphere which 
surrounds us. A second deduction, arrived at 
because we saw that air allowed water to rise 
in the tumbler, is that air can be compressed. 

We have given some time to this very simple 
experiment, because the method of performing it 
carefully and even more carefully noting the result 
is the basis of all chemical and physical experimental 





Science as a Hobby 129 

work. You must learn, even when you are only 
doing chemistry to amuse yourself, to perform each 
experiment carefully, see what is happening or what 
has happened, and draw the proper conclusion. It 
is by means of these simple things that the very 
greatest discoveries in the world have been 
made. 

Experiment 2 .—What happens if we heat ^^air^^? 

One of the first things which the old chemists 
did when they had a substance about which they 
knew nothing was to heat it and find out what hap¬ 
pened. This is a very useful and interesting thing 
to do, and we cannot do better than follow their 
example. If we put the end of an “ empty ” test 
tube in the flame of our gas or spirit burner we 
quickly arrive at the conclusion that we can see no 
change of any kind taking place. An ordinary care¬ 
less, non-scientific person might easily come to the 
conclusion that nothing at all was happening ; but 
we are scientists, and we want to know. We must 
devise a more careful experiment. 

Fit a cork and a bent glass tube to one of your 
flasks and allow the end of the tube to dip under water 
as shown in Fig. I. If you now apply heat to the 
flask you will soon see that bubbles are rising from 
the end of the tube. If you now remove the source 
of heat, water will start to run up the tube, and if 
you are not careful it may run over into the hot 
flask and break it. 

Something has happened to the air in the flask. 
The fact that water rushes up the tube directly the 
heat is removed from the flask suggests that some 
of the air has been driven out and that the water is 






130 Hobbies 

taking its place. Since nothing could have got into 
the flask except the heat transferred through the 
glass, we conclude that the heat has made the air 
grow bigger and thus forced some of it out. We 
know some has come out, because we saw the bubbles. 
This is, in fact, what has happened, and we arrive 
at the conclusion that air expands when it is heated 
and contracts when it is cooled. It must have con¬ 
tracted, or the water would not have run up the 
tube. 

But was it air that came out of the end of the 
tube ? Do the experiment over again, but before 
you cork up the flask see if a lighted taper will burn 
inside it. It will for a short time, and as we know that 
a taper will burn in the air we can conclude that 
there is air in the flask. ' Now apply heat as before. 
Fill a beaker or a glass jar with water and hold it 
under the surface of the water so that the bubbles 
from the end of the tube will rise inside it and dis¬ 
place the water. A test tube will do for this. When 
all the water has been driven out, see if a taper or 
match will burn inside the jar or test tube. You 
will find that it will. You can conclude from this 
that there has been no chemical change in the air, 
but only a physical one. 

Experiment 3 .—Of what is air made? 

When I tell you that air is mainly a mixture of 
two gases called oxygen and nitrogen, you will, I 
hope, believe me. But, being of a scientific turn of 
mind, you will want to find out for yourself. If you 
had to set about it unaided you would probably 
take a very long time before you arrived at any con¬ 
clusion at all; but clever men a long time ago have 









Science as a Hobby 131 

found out all about it and shown us the way. so that 
wn can proceed without waste of time. 

For this experiment you will want a bell-jar. 
This you can make for yourself by cracking the bot¬ 
tom off a glass jar for which you have a well-fitting 
cork. File a clean cut all round the bottom of the 
jar, and then touch the glass all round under the cut 
with a red-hot poker. The bottom should crack off 
cleanly. Smooth the rough edges with the file and 
you now have a bell-jar to add to your apparatus. 
You will find it of use to you for many experiments 
besides this one. 

Half fill a soup-plate with water and float on it 
one of your evaporating dishes. Take a small piece 
of phosphorus. A piece about J in. square wdll be 
enough unless your bell-jar is a big one. Place the 
phosphorus in the evaporating dish and cover it with 
the bell-jar, so that the bottom is sealed by the 
w'ater. Have ready a jug of w^ater. Now take out 
the cork from the top of the jar. This cork should 
have been prepared with a handle, as I described 
in my first article. Set the phosphorus on fire by 
touching it with a red-hot wdre, and immediately 
replace the cork. 

Now watch what happens. Dense white fumes 
begin to fill the jar from the burning phosphorus. 
The water is driven down a little because the air 
is expanded by the heat of combustion. Then it 
begins to rise. Presently the phosphorus wdll go 
out. Allow the jar to cool and then roughly measure 
the distance to w^hich the water has risen. You wdll 
find out that it fills about one-fifth of the jar. (The 
jug of water you had ready was to add to the water 








132 Hobbies 

in the soup-place, because it will probably be all 
sucked up into the jar, and you don’t want to have 
the experiment spoiled by allowing air to be sucked 
in.) 

Now you can form your first conclusion. Some¬ 
thing has been taken out of the air which formed 
about one-fifth of it. Obviously the burning phos¬ 
phorus has taken it out. Probably it has gone to 
form the white fumes which we saw. I can tell you 
that it has, but you are not yet in a position to prove 
it for yourself. 

Now take out the cork from your bell-jar and 
plunge a lighted taper into the jar. Immediately 
it goes out. From this you will conclude that the 
burning phosphorus has taken from the air the 
portion of it that allows things to burn or, in scien¬ 
tific language, “ supports combustion.” This is 
what has happened. The combustion supporting 
gas is called oxygen, and forms about one-fifth of 
the air. The part which will not allow things to 
burn is called nitrogen, and forms about four-fifths 
of the air. 

Fresh apparatus or chemicals required: You 
will want no new apparatus, but you should now 
provide yourself with a book of blue litmus paper 
and a book of red litmus paper. These cost 2d. 
or 3d. each, and are just specially prepared paper 
which has been soaked in litmus solution and dried. 
They are used for telling whether substances have 
acid or alkaline properties. 

Experiment 4.—^This is, in some ways, a repetition 
of experiment 3. In your bell-jar, which must this 
time be standing on a dry surface, burn another small 





Science as a Hobby 133 

piece of phosphorus. You will notice that the dense 
white fumes that are given off will gradually collect 
on the sides of the jar and on the plate or glass sur¬ 
face on which it is standing. When the fumes have 
all cleared, remove the bell-jar and examine this 
white “ soot.” You will find that it is a solid. If a 
little of it is put into a test tube and a little water 
added, the white solid will dissolve in the water. 
Put a corner of one of your strips of blue litmus 
paper in this solution. The litmus will turn red. 
This proves that the white substance has acid 'pro¬ 
perties, It is not an acid, for an acid contains 
another substance called hydrogen. 

Now for our conclusions from this experiment. 
From the previous experiment we have gathered 
that the burning phosphorus removes the oxygen 
from the air. Now we are forced to the belief that 
the oxgyen gas and the solid phosphorus combine 
to form an entirely new white substance. This 
substance is an oxide of phosphorus. Its chemical 
formula is P 2 O 5 , which means that two parts of 
phosphorus have combined with five parts of oxygen 
to form this entirely new substance. 

Oxygen will combine with other substances to 
form oxides. 

Experiment 5,—To prepare oxygen. 

It is evident that this oxygen gas that forms 
part of the atmosphere is a very interesting substance, 
and it will be well worth our while to find out some¬ 
thing more about it. To do this we must prepare a 
quantity of the gas, which is, fortunately, an easy 
thing to do. All we have to do is to heat a mixture 
of chlorate of potash and manganese dioxide. Both 






Hobbies 


134 

of these substances contain oxygen, and we can set 
free the oxygen by heating either alone. The reason 
for mixing them is that the gas will come off at a 
much lower temperature from the mixture. 

The apparatus is easy to get ready. We will 
require the flask and cork and bent tube which we 
used in Experiment 2. In addition we must have 
some glass jars—narrow-mouthed jam jars will serve 
very well—in which to collect the gas. The gas 
will have to be collected over water, and so we must 
fix up what is known as a pneumatic trough. This 
can easily be made at home. Fig. 1 will give you the 
idea. You will want an ordinary flower-pot with a 
base sufficiently wide to take the mouths of your 
glass jars. Knock a hole out of the rim of the pot 
and smooth it with a file. Stand this rim down in 
the bottom of a vessel sufficiently deep to allow 
water to well cover the flower-pot, which we have 
converted into a “ beehive shelf.” Now arrange 
your apparatus as shown in the figure. Put about 
an ounce of the mixture in the bottom of the flask 
and apply a gentle heat. 

Very soon bubbles will be seen rising from the 
end of the tube which is dipped beneath the water. 
These are air which is being driven out of the flask. 
Let them bubble for about a minute, and then slide 
one of your glass jars, which you have previously 
filled absolutely full of water, upside down on to the 
beehive shelf. The gas, which is oxygen, will bubble 
through the hole in the beehive and gradually force 
the water out of the jar. When it is filled remove 
it and stand it in a saucer, in the bottom of which 
is a little water. Replace it on the beehive shelf by 





Science as a Hobby 135 

another jar filled with water. In this way you will 
be able to prepare several jars of oxygen. 

Experiment 6 .—Oxygen is a good supporter of 
combustion. 

Have ready a piece of copper wire to which is 
attached a piece of charcoal. Turn one of your 
jars of oxygen mouth up, and having induced the 
charcoal to glow by holding it in a flame, plunge it 
into the jar. Immediately it will begin to glow 
and burn very brightly, throwing off brilliant sparks. 

Obviously something has happened to quicken 
up the rate of burning of the charcoal, which will 
only glow dully in air. We conclude that oxygen, 
which is a colourless, invisible gas, is a very good 
supporter of combustion. 

When the brilliant burning has died down we 
can put another piece of glowing charcoal in the jar, 
but it will only glow dully. The first piece has taken 
up all the oxygen. 

Though you cannot prove it for the moment, what 
has happened is that the carbon (charcoal) and the 
oxygen have combined to form carbonic acid gas. 
In other words the carbon has been oxidized. 

Experiment 7 .—Other substances besides charcoal 
will burn in oxygen with great brilliance. 

Fasten the lid of a small tin to a piece of wire, 
so as to make a “ deflagrating spoon.” Put on it 
a small quantity of sulphur and set it on fire. It 
burns with a pale blue flame and makes a strong 
smell. Now plunge it into a jar of oxygen. It 
immediately begins to burn much more strongly and 
gives off dense fumes. As soon as the combustion 
is finished remove the deflagrating spoon, pour a 






136 Hobbies 

little water into the jar and shake it well, having 
first corked or covered it. Now apply a piece of 
your blue litmus paper to the water. It turns red. 

It is evident that by burning sulphur in oxygen 
we have caused another acid substance to be formed. 

This is sulphurous acid gas. 

Experiment 8.—If you are curious you may 
repeat your experiment with the burning phosphorus 
in a jar of oxygen. You will notice that the com¬ 
bustion is much more rapid, but that the dense white 
fumes and the white solid are formed just as they were 
when phosphorus was burned in air. The only 
difference you will notice is that they will be formed 
much more quickly. 

From this you will conclude that it really was 
oxygen that the phosphorus took from the air when 
burned in it, since the same results are obtained by 
burning phosphorus in pure oxygen. A solution of 
the white substance will turn blue litmus red in just 
the same manner. You may note that the fumes 
smell just the same, though it is not wise to inhale 
the fumes of oxide of phosphorus to any great 
extent. 

Experiment 9 .—Iron will burn in oxygen. 

A sensational ending to this series of experi¬ 
ments may be had by burning a piece of iron 
in one of your jars full of oxygen. This is useful as 
showing that oxygen has a great affinity for even 
a hard and tough substance like iron, and will readily 
combine with it. 

To successfully perform this experiment you 
need a length of fine iron or steel wire. An old 
hair-spring from a watch or clock will do very well. 





Science as a Hobby 137 

First heat this in the strongest flame you have to 
hand to prove to your satisfaction that it will not 
burn in air. 

Then, having a full jar of oxygen ready, dip the 
warmed end of your wire in some powdered sulphur, 
so that a little adheres. Set light to this sulphur 
and plunge it immediately into the oxygen. The 
sulphur will first flame brilliantly, heating the wire 
to redness. Then the metal itself should begin to 
burn, throwing off brilliant sparks until either the 
metal or the oxygen is consumed. 

We conclude from this experiment that iron will 
combine with oxygen as readily as either sulphur 
or phosphorus or charcoal. From the knowledge 
we have gained we would suppose that the result 
would be the formation of a new substance entirely 
different from either iron or oxygen. In fancy we 
would expect to find, in some form or other, an 
oxide of iron remaining in the jar. We shall not be 
disappointed. Examination will show us many 
small flakes of a black solid substance. This is an 
oxide of iron. It is commonly called black oxide 
of iron. 

We have found out that iron or steel, which will 
not burn in air, which is very diluted oxygen, will 
burn in pure oxygen. 

Now, before you have done thinking about the 
affinity of iron for oxygen, go out into the garden 
and look at a nail that has been in the wall or fence 
for some time. It is red with rust. This rust is 
another oxide of iron, formed by the action of the 
oxygen of the air on the iron in the presence of 
moisture. 

j 





138 


Hobbies 


II_WONDERFUL HYDROGEN GAS 

Hydrogen (H) is the most wonderful of all the 
elements, and one of the most abundant to be 
found on the earth. As we know it is found 
in water, in which it forms a chemical compound 
with oxygen, another wonderful element. It also 
goes to form coal, the oils and spirits, like lamp oil 
and petrol, the dyes that give the colour to all the 
fabrics we use for our clothes and about our houses, 
the bread and sugar we eat, and hundreds of other 
substances in daily use. In most of these things 
it is in combination with oxygen and one or two 
other elements, of which the most usual is carbon. 
It is an essential part of all acids. 

Hydrogen is the lightest of all known substances. 
Equal volumes of hydrogen and air have been 
weighed, and it has been found that Hydrogen 
weighs only one-fifteenth as much as air. One of 
the most curious things about hydrogen is that 
chemists have not yet quite made up their minds 
whether it is a metal or a non-metal. True you will 
generally find it placed with the non-metals in your 
school chemistry books; but that is because it 
always used to be placed there, and it does not seem 
right to change it until the clever men who are 
always investigating these matters are quite sure. 

Because hydrogen is so important and because 
it is one of the two elements that go to form water 
we will now do some experiments with it. 

Experiment 1 .—The preparation of hydrogen gas. 

We have said that hydrogen is an essential of all 
acids. Luckily it is quite easy to get an acid to give 






Science as a Hobby 139 

up its hydrogen, so that we can collect it and examine 
its properties. To do this experiment fit up a bottle 
or flask with a tight fitting cork in which you have 
bored two holes. One of these holes is for a thistle 
funnel or tube, made as described in the article on 
glass-blowing, and the other for a delivery tube. 
The thistle-tube must pass to the very bottom of 
the flask. 

In the bottom of the flask place some granulated 
zinc, or zinc clippings—about an egg-cupful will be 
quite enough. Now put in your cork, with the tubes 
in place, and pour in enough dilute sulphuric acid 
to fill about a quarter of the flask. Immediately the 
mixture of the acid and water touches the metal zinc 
you will see bubbles form and disengage themselves. 
Very soon bubbling becomes very active. 

Of course you don’t know what these bubbles 
are, and if this was the very first time this experiment 
had been done you would have to go to a lot of 
trouble to find out. As a matter of fact you can 
take my word for it that the bubbles consist of 
hydrogen gas. 

But why has the hydrogen formed ? It is very 
simple. The sulphur and oxygen in the sulphuric 
acid like the zinc (they have an affinity for it, in 
scientific language), and the hydrogen does not like 
it at all. As a matter of fact the sulphur and oxygen 
like the zinc better then they like the hydrogen. 
They leave the hydrogen by itself and combine with 
the zinc to form another compound which is called 
sulphate of zinc. The hydrogen having now nothing 
to bind it goes off on its own. 

The hydrogen gas, once it has driven the air out 






140 Hobbies 

of the flask will issue from the delivery pipe. Now 
for a strong word of warning. Hydrogen takes fire 
very readily and forms with air a very explosive 
mixture. Don’t do this experiment anywhere near 
a naked flame or you may have an explosion that 
will burst your flask and may damage you. 

You can collect the hydrogen over water as 
has been explained in the article telling you how to 
make oxygen, or you can collect it simply by holding 
a gas-jar over the end of the delivery pipe. The 
former is the safer way as you are then sure of getting 
pure hydrogen. Collect several jars of the gas, and 
then you can examine it. You will have already 
noticed that it is invisible. Pure hydrogen is without 
odour ; but that you make will most likely have a 
slightly disagreeable smell owing to the presence of 
slight impurities which are compounds of hydrogen 
with sulphur, arsenic and carbon, all of which very 
likely exist, in minute quantities in your chemicals. 

Experiment 2 .—Hydrogen is a very light gas. 

To find out if it is really true that hydrogen is 
very light you can perform a very striking experiment 
and one that always looks effective if it is done at 
a demonstration. You must make a rough balance 
out of a rod of wood or steel. If you have a balance 
it will, of course, serve for this experiment. Weight 
one side so that it correctly balances a light glass 
bell that hangs from the other arm. Part of a broken 
flask or a small beaker will do for this. It is hung 
with its mouth downward, and of course it is filled 
with air. Now take one of your jars of hydrogen 
and pour the gas from it upwards into your balanced 
bell. The other side of the balance will go down 







Science as a Hobby 141 

as the light hydrogen pours into the bell and displaces 
the air. The gas is so light that it tries to rise and 
actually forces the bell upwards. It is this lightness 
of hydrogen that makes it so useful for filling balloons. 
All our airships are filled with hydrogen. 

Experiment 3 .—Hydrogen hums readily in air. 

Hold one of your bottles full of hydrogen upside 
down and place a lighted taper to the mouth. The 
hydrogen takes fire with a slight report, and then 
burns quietly with a beautiful pale blue flame. 
Now use your eyes. When the flame has gone out 
do you notice anything curious about the jar ? Very 
little observation will show you that it is covered 
on the inside with a film of moisture. This moisture 
is actually water. The hydrogen has combined with 
the oxygen of the air to form water, the chemical 
formula for which is HgO, meaning that two parts 
of hydrogen have combined with one part of oxygen. 

Experiment 4 .—Another way of proving that 
hydrogen is very light 

Prepare some soap solution as for blowing bubbles. 
A small quantity of glycerine added to the solution 
will make it work better. Now connect an ordinary 
clay pipe to the end of your hydrogen delivery pipe 
by a three or four feet length of rubber tubing. Dip 
the bowl of the pipe into the solution, just as you do 
in blowing ordinary bubbles, and let the gas blow a 
bubble. To do this you must have the gas coming 
off strongly. You will find that bubbles so formed 
will rise rapidly through the air. If a lighted taper 
is applied to these hydrogen bubbles they will burst 
into flame. If you are clever with your fingers it 
is possible for you to make a small balloon of gold- 





142 Hobbies 

beater’s skin that will serve to demonstrate the light¬ 
ness of hydrogen any number of times. It is not 
possible to fill a rubber balloon with the gas unless 
you have some means of forcing it in against the re¬ 
sistance of the rubber. 

Experiment 5.—Pass a lighted taper into one of 
your filled jars of hydrogen. You will notice that 
though the gas is set alight at the mouth of the jar 
the taper goes out. Having observed this and per¬ 
formed the experiment two or three times you will 
draw the conclusion that though hydrogen will burn 
very readily in air it will not support combustion. 
If you care to make the experiment, however, you 
will find out that it is possible to light a jet of oxygen 
gas in hydrogen. The result of this flame of oxygen 
burning in hydrogen is the formation of water. It 
is also possible to get a jet of chlorine to burn in 
hydrogen. Both these experiments are rather tricky 
for the beginner, and the latter is distinctly dangerous 
for hydrogen and chlorine combine so readily that 
a strong light falling on a mixture of hydrogen and 
chlorine is sufficient to cause them to explode. 

We have now investigated some of the chief 
characteristics of hydrogen, which, together with 
oxygen, makes that ordinary substance water. In 
our next series of experiments we will return to the 
consideration of water. 

Ill_THE CHEMISTRY OF WATER 

You must never forget that experiments are 
performed for a definite purpose. That purpose 
is always to find out something. It may be 







Science as a Hobby 143 

to discover how a substance behaves in certain 
circumstances, it may be to find out of what a sub¬ 
stance is made, or, if you know the components of 
your substance, it may be to learn exactly in what 
proportion elements are combined to form whatever 
it is you are investigating. 

These latter experiments are the most difficult 
that any chemist is called upon to perform, for they 
demand accurate measurement and very careful 
work to ensure that no errors shall creep in. You will 
have to do such work sometime or other, if you are 
going very far with chemistry, and so you may as 
well start them early in your career. We will start 
with an analysis of water. 

Experiment 1 .—The composition of water hy weight. 

This experiment is really very simple to carry out. 
The difficulty is in the accurate weighing. Unless 
you have a very accurate balance all that you will 
be able to do is to make a rough estimate of your 
weights and reserve accurate weighing until some time 
when you can get the use of a chemist’s balance. 
To do the experiment in a rough and ready manner 
a photographer’s balance is quite sufficient. 

Procure a short length of iron or steel pipe—nine 
or ten inches will be quite sufficient—and place in 
it a small quantity of iron turnings or filings. Weigh 
the tube, with filings in place, and make a careful 
note of the weight in your notebook. Next half fill 
a flask with water and weigh that also. Note the 
weight. 

Now connect your apparatus up so that the flask 
is connected, by glass and rubber tubing, to one end 
of the iron tube. To the other end of the iron tube 







144 Hobbies 

you can affix a delivery tube so that you can collect 
the hydrogen gas that passes off. 

You must next make some provision for strongly 
heating the iron tube so that the filings inside it 
may be made red hot. This can be done with a 
gas-ring, a primus-stove, a blow-lamp, or by any 
other means that will give a really good heat. When 
I was a boy I did this very experiment by means 
of a home-made charcoal furnace that I manufac¬ 
tured out of an old biseuit tin. It acted finely, 
but it developed so much heat that it burnt the old 
table I used as a laboratory bench. I forget how 
I made it, but you can easily think it out for your¬ 
selves if you want to make one. It was something 
like those “ fire-buekets ” that watchmen on road¬ 
mending jobs use in the night. There was a hole 
right through from side to side to take the iron 
tube, whieh was quite surrounded by glowing char¬ 
coal. 

But you will be wanting to be getting on with 
the experiment. Having seen that your tube is 
in a fair way to becoming red hot you can begin 
to heat up the water in the flask. This must boil 
strongly, so that it will give off steam in a good 
stream. To do the experiment accurately the steam 
should not start to pass from the flask until the tube 
is glowing, or rather until the iron filings inside it 
are glowing. 

The steam passes through the red hot tube, 
and a gas comes out at the other end. If you collect 
this gas you will find that you can test it in just 
the way that you tested hydrogen in our last series 
of experiments, and that it will act in exaetly the 





Science as a Hobby 145 

same way. It is, in fact, hydrogen gas that you have 
prepared. 

But steam went into the tube and hydrogen 
has come out! What has happened ? It is very 
simple. Iron, particularly red-hot iron, has a very 
strong affinity for oxygen. It gathers up all the 
oxygen from the steam, which is only water in the 
form of gas, and sets the hydrogen free. The oxygen 
combines with the iron to form “ black oxide of 
iron. 

Weigh your iron pipe, and also your flask. You 
will find that the iron pipe is heavier than it was 
when you started the experiment. That gain in 
weight represents the oxygen that has been taken 
from the water vapour. The flask weighs less, 
because of the steam that has passed off. 

I expect that it is about as far as you will be 
able to get; but, if you are sure that you have 
produced hydrogen and you are quite sure that your 
tube weighs more, and if, on opening the tube when 
it is cool, you find much of the iron filings turned 
into a black, powdery substance quite unlike iron, 
then you will have done very well for a start. 

If you have sufficiently delicate apparatus to 
weigh everything carefully you will arrive at some 
very interesting conclusions. We will suppose that 
there were, in the tube, 168 grains of iron. If you 
have so conducted your experiment that all this 
iron is turned into black oxide, you will now find 
the weight to be 232 grains, a gain of 64 grains 
This represents the amount of oxygen taken from 
the water vapour. If you now weigh the hydrogen 
you have collected it should weigh exactly 8 grains. 





146 Hobbies 

This represents the decomposition of 72 grains of 
steam. Even when you are working very carefully 
you will be sure to find that you have lost more 
than 72 grains when re-weighing your bottle that 
you used to boil the water. It is very difficult 
indeed to use exactly the right amount of steam. 

If you divide the figures we have used by four 
you will see that 2 grains of hydrogen are produced 
from 18 grains of water, leaving 16 grains of hydrogen 
to combine with 42 grains of iron. 

The chemical formula for water is HgO and means 
that water consists of 2 atoms of hydrogen and 

1 atom of oxygen in each molecule. Remember 
those names and look at the weights again. Eighteen 
grains of water give 2 grains of hydrogen, and 16 
grains of oxygen. What do you deduce ? A little 
thought will suggest the fact that one atom of oxygen 
weighs 16 times as much as one atom of hydrogen. 
You have determined the composition of water 
by w^eight. Eighteen parts of water will contain 

2 parts of hydrogen and 16 parts of oxygen—by 
weight. 

Experiment 2 .—The composition of water by 
volume. 

To perform this experiment satisfactorily you 
must have a fairly strong battery, though you can 
perform it with a single cell from an electric torch 
if you are prepared to be very patient and wait a 
long, long time, several days, for your results. If 
you can get the use of six or eight cells such as are 
used for electric bells, or, better still, a strong 
secondary battery (accumulator) such as is used 
by motorists for their lighting sets, you will be able 







Science as a Hobby 147 

to perform your experiment quiekly and see it in 
operation. 

The apparatus is simple, apart from the battery ; 
but it must be carefully prepared. The idea is that 
if a current of electricity is passed through water 
it breaks the water up into its two gases. What 
we have to devise is some means of collecting these 
two gases and testing them to find out what they 
are. We also want to measure them. 

The best thing to use is the bottom, or holder, 
portion of a spent electric light globe. This will be 
found to have two pieces of wire projecting through 
the glass. To the brass connecting pieces on the 
holder solder or otherwise strongly attach two lengths 
of stout electric bell wire, taking care that you do 
not make any electric connection between the two 
brasses. When the connections are made cover 
them all over with sealing wax or candle wax so that 
it is impossible that any portion of the metal of the 
holder that was outside the bulb is exposed to the 
water when you sink your apparatus in a bowj. 
The current must pass through the water through 
those two pieces of wire that held the filament 
when the lamp was unbroken. 

Now sink your holder in water to which you have 
added a drop or two of sulphuric acid—this is only 
to quicken the action. See that it sits on the bottom 
of the bowl so that the holder portion is at the bottom. 
Now fill the two test-tubes with water and arrange 
one over one terminal and the other over the other. 
Connect up the free ends of your wire to the terminals 
of your battery. Bubbles of gas will collect round 
each of the terminals and will rise into the tube 





148 Hobbies 

placed over them. You will soon see that gas is 
collecting in one tube exactly twice as fast as in the 
other. When you test these gases, according to 
the experiments you have already performed, you 
will find that the one that collects twice as fast as 
the other is hydrogen. The other is oxygen. Now 
remember the formula for water—HgO. In water 
there are two atoms of hydrogen for every one atom 
of oxygen. 

We have now learned two important things 
about water and about the gases that combine to 
form it. One is that if we measure the gases by 
weight we find there is eight times as much oxygen 
as there is hydrogen. If we measure by volume we 
find that there is twice as much hydrogen as there 
is oxygen. Hydrogen is the unit (1) of weight for 
atoms. The oxygen atom weighs sixteen times as 
much. 

IV.—CARBON 

One of the important elements which is in very 
many of the things we see around us and use in our 
daily life is carbon (C). It is in chemical combination 
with other elements in very many things and it is 
found in a pure, or nearly pure, form, in several 
varieties. 

The diamond is pure carbon, so is graphite, or 
“ blacklead ” from which pencils are made. Lamp¬ 
black, which is really soot, is pure carbon, and charcoal, 
prepared by strongly heating either animal or 
vegetable substances, is nearly pure carbon. 

It is difficult to believe that the bright and 
sparkling diamond, the most valuable of gems, 





Science as a Hobby 149 

and ordinary soot, of the lead of your pencil, are 
one and the same element; but so it is. If you 
don’t believe it you can easily prove it. You only 
have to burn a diamond in oxygen and then, in 
another jar of oxygen burn a piece of graphite or 
charcoal. On applying the same test to the gases 
which remain in the jars after the diamond and the 
other varieties of carbon have been burnt we get 
the same result. Don’t laugh at the thought of 
burning so valuable a thing as a diamond. It has 
been done. 

The sure test for carbon when it has been burnt 
in air or oxygen is by agitating some of the resulting 
gas with “ lime water.” The lime-water turns 
milky. When diamond is burnt in oxygen and a 
little lime-water is shaken up in the jar afterwards 
the lime-water turns milky. The same thing happens 
when the test is repeated after graphite or charcoal 
or lamp-black have been burnt. There is only one 
thing that will turn lime-water milky, and that is 
carbon-dioxide gas, commonly known as carbonic 
acid gas. 

Experiment 1 .—To prepare lime-water. 

You will find it useful to have a bottle of lime- 
water in your laboratory, and since you can easily 
prepare it yourself there is no reason why you should 
not add it to your stock of chemicals. You will 
have acted on my suggestion and prepared some 
distilled water. Place some of this in a flask or 
beaker and then beg from the nearest place where 
building operations are going on, a piece of lime, 
either slaked or unslaked, about as big as an egg- 
cup. Put this in the water. You have enough 





Hobbies 


150 

lime to make a gallon of lime-water, so that you 
can make a good quantity. Stir up well and let 
the solution rest for several hours. Pour off the 
clear water and you have your lime-water. The 
sediment that remains is of no value, and may be 
thrown away. 

Lime is the common name for Oxide of Calcium, 
calcium being a yellowish metal (an element) that 
combines so readily with oxygen that it is seldom 
found in a pure state. Lime water is simply a 
solution of hydrate of lime in water. By the way 
don’t attempt to hurry the making of your lime- 
water by trying to mix it in hot water. Hydrate 
of lime (slaked lime) is about twice as soluble in cold 
as in hot water. 

Experiment 2.—Place a little lime-water in a 
tumbler or beaker and blow in it strongly through 
a glass tube. Very soon you will see the clear lime- 
water turn milky. A little while after, if you con¬ 
tinue blowing, the water will clear again. 

The explanation of this is quite simple. The 
carbonic acid gas in your expired breath combines 
with the lime in the water to form caleium carbonate? 
or chalk as it is more commonly called. This 
formation of chalk from lime-water is a sure test 
for the presence of carbonic acid gas, and it is by 
this test that the diamond has been proved to be 
exactly the same elemental substance as charcoal, 
as has already been told. The reason why the lime- 
water clears again is that the water takes some of 
the carbonic acid gas into solution, and chalk is 
soluble in water containing carbonic acid gas, form¬ 
ing bicarbonate of lime. 








Science as a Hobby 151 

Experiment 3 .—Wood contains carbon. 

Place some ehips and shavings of wood in a test- 
tube and fit a cork and glass tube to the test-tube. 
If the test-tube is now strongly heated gas will be 
( driven off through the delivery tube. This at first 
< consists of steam, until the wood is thoroughly dry. 
„■ Afterwards various inflammable vapours will come 
i - off and may be lighted at the jet. Round the eooler 
Y end of the test tube and in the delivery tube a kind 
^ of tar will form. When inflammable gas no longer 
issues from the delivery tube the test-tube should 
be taken from the flame and allowed to cool. On 
opening it a mass of ehareoal will be found inside. 
If you have weighed the original wood you will 
( find that the charcoal is much lighter. Having seen 
all that vapour and tar driven off you will expeet 
this. You can repeat this experiment with dried 
meat, with bread, sugar, stareh, or any animal or 
vegetable substanee. Test by burning a small 
’portion in a closed vessel and then agitating the 
[resulting gas with lime water. In every case it 
will turn milky, proving the presence of carbon 
•^dioxide, resulting from the combination of the oxy- 
^gen of the air with carbon. 

Experiment 4 .—The combustion of carbon. 

Fix up an apparatus consisting of a large diameter 
, ^glass tube containing charcoal or some other easily 
^urnt form of carbon. 

l\ The delivery pipe dips under lime-water. From the 
^ther end a slow current of oxygen or air from a 
ilfootball bladder or bellows can be passed through 
4the tube. If the current is passed over the carbon 
ijin the tube it bubbles through the lime water without 






152 Hobbies 

affecting it in any way. Now if heat is applied so 
that the carbon begins to glow, the lime-water 
immediately takes the milky tinge that is character- j 
istic of the passing of carbon dioxide. The inference ] 
is that the application of heat has allowed the oxyger < 
to combine with the carbon, which it could not dc 
when both were cold. 

Experiment 5.—If you continue to heat the carbon 
in the tube arranged for the previous experiment 
until the substance ceases to burn you will find that 
there is nothing left but a small quantity of white 
ash. This is mineral matter. All the carbon ha* 
been taken away by the oxygen to form carbor 
dioxide, leaving the mineral matter behind. This * 
mineral matter is an impurity mixed with the carbon. 
If the carbon had been absolutely pure, as it is in 
lampblack, no ash would have remained behind. 
Burning is always resorted to when it is desired tc 
find out how much mineral matter there is in an 
organic substance. A weighed portion of the sub 
stance is heated until all the organic matter is con ) 
sumed. The resultant mineral ash is weighed and 
the proportion found. i 

You cannot prove it for yourself; but you will 
be interested to know that carbon is almost the only, 
if not the one element which is known to exist on ly 
in the solid form. Oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, and 
the other gases may be liquefied and solidified. 
Sulphur, phosphorus, iodine, and the other non- 
metals can be turned into liquids and gases. Mercury 
we know both as a solid and a vapour as well as 
a liquid, and all the metals may be melted and 
vaporized. Carbon has never been melted. It is 





Science as a Hobby 153 

impossible, also, to dissolve carbon in any known 
liquid. Charcoal gradually disappears when it is 
boiled with sulphuric and nitric acids, but it is not 
merely dissolved. It is converted into carbon 
dioxide. 

) 

V—CARBON DIOXIDE—POISON GAS 

Carbon dioxide, which is called carbonic acid 
gas, and is formed by the combination of one 
. molecule of carbon with two molecules of oxygen 
i to form one atom of carbon dioxide, is a very real 
poison gas. As you knoAV we breathe in air into our 
lungs. The oxygen of the air combines with the 
carbon in our bodies to form the deadly COg. That 
is the reason why the air of cinema theatres and 
crowded halls is so bad to breathe. Carbon dioxide 
• is a poison. 

) Experiment 1.—Blow through a glass tube into 
some lime water. The lime water soom becomes 
milky, proving that the air we breathe out of our 
lungs contains this gas. 

Experiment 2.—Light a candle and place it under 
a glass gas-jar or any other glass that will prevent 
a new supply of air from reaching it. To make sure 
let the glass stand in half an inch of water. You 
w'ill observe that the candle very soon dwindles and 
dies out. Why ? No more oxygen, you say. Very 
good ; but it is something more. If you pour a 
little of your lime-water into the jar and shake it 
about you will see that it turns milky. The candle, 
in burning, has somehow formed carbonic acid gas. 
As a matter of fact there is a great deal of carbon 
in the candle wax. This has been set free by the 

K 








154 Hobbies 

burning, and has combined with the oxygen of the 
air. 

Experiment 3 .—To make carbon dioxide. 

This gas can easily be made in several ways. 
The easiest is by allowing an acid to act on any of 
the carbonates. Ordinary washing soda is really 
carbonate of sodium. You have already been told 
that chalk is carbonate of caleium. Place an ounce 
of either of these substances in a bottle fitted with 
a thistle tube and delivery tube as shown in the 
sketeh and pour dilute hydrochloric acid down the 
thistle tube. Carbonic acid gas will commence to 
bubble off and may be colleeted by downwards 
displacement, as it is much heavier than air. It 
will not do to try to collect it over water as we do 
oxygen and hydrogen and many other acids, for water 
will absorb a great deal of carbon dioxide. Ordinary 
soda w'ater is simply water in which carbon dioxide 
has been dissolved under pressure. Directly the 
pressure is released—by removing the cork or stopper 
of the bottle—the gas bubbles out of the water. 

Having prepared a quantity of the gas test some 
of it by shaking with lime-water. The lime-water 
will turn milky. The cause of this was explained 
in the last series of experiments. 

Experiment 4 .—Carbon dioxide is heavier than 

air. 

This is simply a reversal of your experiment 
with hydrogen gas. Balance a beaker at one end 
of a scale beam, mouth upward. If you now pour 
a quantity of carbon dioxide into the beaker, just 
as though you were pouring water, the beaker will 
descend, proving that it is now heavier than when 








Science as a Hobby 155 

it contained air. This is a most striking and mys¬ 
terious experiment to watch. Carbon dioxide is 
invisible, and you can see nothing being poured into 
the beaker, and yet the beaker goes down as surely 
as though you had dropped a weight into it. 

Experiment 5.—Plunge a lighted taper into a jar 
containing carbon dioxide. It at once goes out. 
Carbon dioxide will not support combustion. 

Carbon dioxide is often produced in large quan¬ 
tities in nature, and sometimes collects in caves and 
at the bottom of valleys. In such cases men or 
animals going into the “ lake ” of gas unawares, 
are quiekly stupefied and killed by the poisonous 
gas. As the gas is so heavy it frequently lies on 
the bottom of such “ death caves “ or death valleys, 
and a man can walk through them without knowing 
of any danger whilst a dog trotting at his heel is 
most mysteriously killed. 

Experiment 6 .—Carbon dioxide is soluble in water. 
The young chemist will never let any statement 
pass without doing his best to test it, if the means 
to test it are within his reach. We have made 
two statements in this chapter which you should 
investigate now that you know how to do it. One 
is that ordinary soda water is simply ordinary water 
containing carbon dioxide in solution, and the other 
I is that carbon dioxide is soluble in water. Let us 
! test the latter statement first. 

I Fit up your apparatus for manufacturing carbon 
^ dioxide, but instead of collecting the gas as it comes 
off by downward displacement allow it to bubble 
through a bottle or flask containing water. Let it 
bubble for about ten minutes—longer if the water 







156 Hobbies 

is warm, for CO 2 dissolves more easily in eold water 
than in warm—and then shake up a little lime-water 
in the bottle or flask. The water will turn milky, 
proving that earbon dioxide is present. To be quite 
sure that it has eome from the flask in whieh you 
have prepared it you should shake some of the water 
you are going to allow the gas to bubble through with 
lime-water before the experiment. You will find that 
it will remain elear. Use the rest of the water for 
your experiment. The eonelusion you arrive at is 
that the water has dissolved and held in solution 
some of the gas. 

Now pour out from a bottle or siphon a small 
quantity of soda water. Shake it up with a little 
lime-water as before and you at onee get the eharae- 
teristie milky appearanee. Sinee you ean quite 
easily prove that the gas whieh eomes off in bubbles 
from the soda water will not ignite nor will it support 
eombustion you are quite right if you eonelude that 
it is earbon dioxide. 

Experiment 7 .—Carbon dioxide in solution is an 
acid. 

We have already stated that a eharaeteristie of 
an aeid is that it eontains hydrogen. You eannot 
prove this for yourself as yet, so you must believe it 
without proof until you are able to prove it. Mean- 
w’hile you ean easily prove that a solution of earbon 
dioxide in w^ater is a weak aeid. By itself carbon 
dioxide cannot be an acid, for, as you know by the 
formula (CO 2 ) it contains no hydrogen. But water 
(HgO) will supply the necessary hydrogen. 

Bubble some of the carbon dioxide gas through 
a fresh supply of w^ater and add to the solution a 





Science as a Hobby 157 

solution of blue litmus, or place in it a piece of blue 
litmus paper. The litmus will slowly turn a pinky 
red. We know that litmus (blue) always turns red 
I when touched by an acid, so we conclude that carbon 
dioxide in solution is a weak acid, since the reaction 
takes place but slowly. 

Experiment 8 .—To make litmus solution. 

In your collection of chemicals and apparatus 
there should be some litmus solution both red and 
blue. The red solution will enable you to test if a 
substance is an alkali and the blue to test if it is an 
I acid. We have already suggested that you should 
^ have a book of both coloured litmus paper, as such 
books may be purchased quite cheaply. But the 
real chemist always likes to prepare for himself 
! everything he possibly can, and if you have growing 
in your garden any red (pickling) cabbage, you can 
make gallons of litmus solution for nothing. You 
won’t need gallons though. A pint will last you a 
very long time. 

Break up a leaf of the cabbage into small portions 
and place it in a crock. Pour on it boiling water 
pounding and rubbing the cabbage with a pestle or 
! spatula as you do so. (A spoon will do to rub it with 
j if you have nothing more convenient.) Allow the 
I liquid to cool and you will find that it is of a fine 
purple colour. You can bottle it for use as it is if 
you like ; but to make sure that it will keep you 
I should add a little spirits of wine (ordinary methylated 
spirits will do quite well) to the solution. 

This purple liquid is an ideal test solution. If on 
I adding a little to another solution which you wish 
i to test it turns more blue you know that the solution 










Hobbies 


contains an alkali. If it turns red you know that 
it contains an acid. The purple solution can be 
made definitely blue or red by adding to it small 
quantities of weak ammonia or weak acid. 

VI_COMMON SALT AND CHLORINE GAS 

The common salt that is used in eooking in the 
kitchen and appears on our tables and is eaten 
with almost every meal, is a very interesting 
substance from a chemical point of view. It is 
also interesting in that it is the only “ mineral ’’ 
which we commonly and knowingly eat. 

“ Salt ” is a chemical compound which is made 
up of the two elements sodium and chlorine. Sodium 
(Na) is a silver white metal which has so great an 
affinity for the elements contained in water that it 
has to be kept in a bottle under naphtha in the labor¬ 
atory to prevent it from rusting away. It costs 
about three shillings an ounce. Chlorine is a yellowish 
green non-metallic gas. A compound of a metal and 
chlorine is called a chloride. Common salt is sodium 
chloride (NaCl). It is contained in large quantities 
in sea water, from which it may be obtained by 
evaporation. It occurs in big beds underground, 
where it has been deposited by the evaporation of 
salt water lakes and bays in far-off times. 

When using “ salt ” for your experiments take 
care that it is ordinary salt and not the salt mixed 
with other substances that are sold under fancy 
names. 

Experiment 1 .—The preparation of chlorine from 
common salt. 





Science as a Hobby 159 

Fix up a flask and delivery tube so that the gas 
may be collected over water as previously shown. 
Mix together thoroughly 1 ounce of common salt 
and 1 ounce of black oxide of manganese (manganese 
dioxide). Moisten the mixture thoroughly with 
dilute sulphuric acid in the proportions of 2 parts 
of water to 1 part of acid. Shake the mixture 
thoroughly together in the flask until all of it is wet 
with the acid and then place your delivery tubes, 
etc., in position. Now apply gentle heat to the 
bottom of the flask. Almost immediately a greenish- 
yellow gas will begin to come off in large quantities. 
This is chlorine gas. Take care not to breathe it, as 
it has a very irritating effect on the lungs and the 
delicate lining of the nose and mouth. Collect about 
six jars of the gas and cover or stopper each jar as 
soon as it is full, to prevent the gas escaping. Chlorine 
is heavier than air, and may be collected by 
downwards displacement of air ; but by collecting' 
it over cold water less gas escapes. Directly they 
are full the jars should be turned mouth upwards. 
Use warm water in your collecting trough, for the 
gas is less soluble in warm water than it is in cold. 

You will want to know what happens in your 
flask when you apply the heat to make the gas 
come off, and you have no means of finding out. 
It is a very pretty example of ordinary chemical 
reaction. Sulphuric acid (HgSOJ is “ hydrogen 
sulphate.” The hydrogen combines with the oxygen 
of the manganese dioxide to form water. The 
manganese of the oxide and the sodium of the chloride 
combine with the “ sulphate ” portion of the acid 
to form sodium sulphate and manganese sulphate, 







Hobbies 


i6o 

and the chlorine, having nothing to combine with, is 
set free. 

Directly you have finished experimenting with 
a jar of chlorine put it out into the open air to allow 
the gas to escape. 

Experiment 2 .—Chlorine will support combustion. 

Introduce a piece of lighted candle on the end 
of a bent wire into a jar of chlorine. The flame is 
not extinguished, but it burns feebly and with a pale 
flame, giving off great clouds of black smoke. This 
is explained by the fact that the wax of the candle 
contains the elements hydrogen and carbon. Hy¬ 
drogen will burn in chlorine, but carbon will not. 
The carbon is set free in the form of soot. As the 
flame burns the chlorine combines with the hydrogen 
to form hydrochloric acid. As the experiment 
proceeds you may see some white fumes appear. 
These are the fumes of hydrochloric acid which show 
as the gas comes in contact with the air. 

Experiment 3 .—Chlorine and hydrogen combine 
spontaneously in the presence of sunlight. 

This is a very effective experiment which always 
“ comes off ” if it is carefully prepared, and always 
interests those who are not very well up in chemistry, 
so that it is a good show experiment. 

A soda water bottle or florence flask should be 
filled to the very brim with water. Now measure 
the water accurately and return exactly half of it 
to the flask or bottle. Mark the level by scratching 
on the glass with a diamond or file. Now fill the 
bottle full with water again and insert a short glass 
funnel in the mouth. Invert the bottle in the gas 
trough and bubble chlorine from one of your filled 





Science as a Hobby i6i 

jars into it by way of the funnel until the water has 
sunk to exaetly the mark you have made. Displaee 
the rest of the water by hydrogen from your hydrogen 
making apparatus, allowing the gas to bubble freely 
for some time, to drive out all air, before you let it 
go into the bottle. Care is necessary here to make sure 
that the experiment will not fail. Also you should 
do this part of the work where there is no chance of 
sunlight or very strong light falling on the flask. 

Now cork your bottle and tie it to the end of a 
long stick. Shield your face and warn any spectators 
to do the same and then thrust the bottle out into 
the strong sunlight. Immediately there will be a 
loud explosion in the bottle, which may be shattered. 
If you want to show this experiment at night you will 
find that half an inch of magnesium ribbon burnt a 
yard away from the flask containing the mixture 
will usually cause it to explode. The gas resulting 
from the explosion is, of course, hydrochloric acid. 

Experiment 4 .—Chlorine has a great affinity for 
metals. 

Another very effective experiment or series of 
experiments, consists in shaking powdered metals 
into jars containing chlorine. The best to use are 
very fine copper or brass filings and very finely 
powdered antimony. Place a little water in the 
bottom of your gas jar before you do these experi¬ 
ments to prevent the jar from being cracked by 
falling fragments of red hot metal. 

When the copper or brass is shaken into the gas 
it burns with a brilliant reddish light, giving off 
yellow fumes and forming a green. 





HOW TO MAKE COAL GAS 


OU can easily make a small quantity of coal gas 



for yourself and it is an interesting experiment 
to do, for it will help you to understand how gas is 
manufactured in the huge quantities required for 
lighting and heating our great cities. 

An ordinary clay pipe will serve for your retort. 
Fill the bowl with coal dust and cover the top securely 
with stiff wet clay. Then put the bowl well into the 
glowing coals of a hot fire, with the stem projecting 
through the bars. You now have exactly the same 
conditions in which gas is made. Your coal is con¬ 
fined in a fireclay vessel and subjected to strong 
heat. In the gas works, the place of the bowl of 
your pipe is taken by sets of tubes of fireclay filled 
with coal. 

Now watch the end of the pipe stem. After a 
little while you will see what looks like smoke coming 
out of it. If you put a lighted taper to this smoke 
you may get a little flare at the end of the jet, but 
it will quickly go out. The smoke is chiefly steam 
and air that are being driven off from the coal and 
the inside of the pipe. There is, as yet, very little 
gas in it. 

After a little while the jet of smoke will not be so 
visible and will show more willingness to burn, and 
then at last you will be getting nearly all gas and can 
light your jet, which will continue to give a good 
yellow flame until all the gas has been driven off 
from the coal. 


162 


Science as a Hobby 163 

Whilst the jet is burning you will probably see 
a little thick black substance oozing out of the small 
hole in the pipe stem. This is coal tar and is always 
produced in gas making. When your jet has burned 
out take the pipe from the fire, being careful not to 
burn your fingers, and, when it has cooled down 
enough, open it and shake the contents out into a 
tray or piece of paper. You will find a mass of coke 
and a good deal of tar. The tar will be all round 
the inside of the bowl of the pipe. 

In a proper gas works the gas is led from the fire¬ 
clay retorts by a tube which dips down, on the top 
of the furnace, into a long gutter which is called the 
“ hydraulic main.” This main serves two purposes. 
It prevents the gas from blowing back into the 
retorts when the doors are opened to put in a fresh 
charge of coal and it catches the tar. The end of the 
pipe from the retort dips down under water which is 
always kept in the main. 

The gas as it comes from the retort is, of course, 
very hot and it is also very impure. The impurities 
make it burn badly and they are also very valu¬ 
able, for they contain many substances of use to 
man. 

The first thing that is done is to cool the gas and 
take from it the ammonia with which it is strongly 
impregnated. This is done in a “ condenser.” This 
is usually a pipe with many bends in it. The gas 
passes slowly through the many bends and is cooled 
because the outside of the pipe is exposed to the air. 
The ammonia condenses and runs to the bottom, 
mixed with some tar that has not been caught by 
the hydraulic main. 







164 Hobbies 

On the side of the “ eondenser ” away from the 
retorts is a kind of fan or pump whieh draws the gas 
from the retorts and forees it through the main to go 
through many other processes. 

The gas is next “ scrubbed ” or washed. This 
is done either by letting the gas bubble through 
water or by passing thin streams of water through 
it. There are usually two scrubbers. 

The gas is not even yet clean and pure. The gas 
still contains a very poisonous impurity that would 
be dangerous if it were allowed to remain. So it is 
passed through “ purifiers.” These are large, flat- 
tish boxes usually filled with trays containing slaked 
lime. 

When the gas has passed through the purifiers 
it is ready for use and is stored so that it may be 
passed through pipes to the consumers in the proper 
quantities. It is first measured in a huge meter so 
that the gas works people may know exactly how 
much they are making. 

A gas-holder, or “ gasometer,” as it is often 
wrongly called, is an ugly kind of structure, as every 
boy who reads this will know. It is a huge circular 
tank which rises and falls according to the amount 
of gas in it. In a pit beneath the gas-holder water 
is kept which prevents the gas from escaping as the 
holder moves. In the ordinary way this pit has to 
be just as deep as the holder is high. With very 
big holders this would mean a huge pit and a great 
amount of digging to make it. To get over this 
difficulty many big holders are made on the telescopic 
principle. Each piece is slightly smaller than the 
one in which it slides. 






CHARCOAL MAKING AT HOME 


‘'V/"OU often want charcoal for one purpose or 
another. If you keep fowls you should feed 
it to them constantly, it should be put in the fibre in 
which you grow bulbs, and you cannot make fire¬ 
works without it. These are only a few of its uses. 

Charcoal is not cheap to buy, but you can easily 
make it at home with very little trouble. It is an 
interesting thing to do, too, and you can get a lot of 
fun out of it. 

You need a tin with a closely fitting lid. A 
golden-syrup tin with one of those flanged, press- 
down lids is just the thing. Bore a hole in the lid 
to take a small cork in which you have made a hole 
in which you can fit a short length of piping. Any 
kind of pipe will do, and if you can fix an old gas 
burner to the end so much the better. 

Fill your tin quite full with short pieces of dry 
wood well packed down, jam your lid on tight, fit 
your pipe and set the tin on a fire. The fire mustn’t 
be too fierce. Just a nice red glow is all that is 
required. If you can get the hot coals packed well 
round the sides of your tin you will make better 
charcoal. 

After a while you will see steam coming out of 
the pipe. It will come faster and faster until there 
is a strong jet of it. Now apply a light to the jet. 
You will see a little flame flickering in the steam. 
Gas is coming off. After a while the steam will 
nearly disappear and you will find that you can light 

165 


i66 Hobbies 

the gas, which will give a strong flame. Keep the 
Are round the tin until there is no more gas coming 
off and then take it from the fire and set it on one 
side to cool. When it is cold open the tin and you 
will find that all the wood has been turned into black 
charcoal. On the bottom and sides of the tin there 
will be a brownish black tar. This contains Paraffine, 
Naphthaline and many other substances. 

The gas which came off and which you lit is 
chiefly Marsh Gas and Wood Naphtha. Wood 
Naphtha is the stuff that is put in Methylated Spirits 
to make it taste nasty. Its scientific name is Methylic 
Alcohol. 







Section IV.—MISCELLANEOUS HOBBIES 


CONJURING FOR BOYS 

T THINK we may take it for granted that the 
great majority of boys are keenly interested 
in conjuring and find much pleasure in watching 
a magical entertainment. I will not waste words, 
therefore, in writing of the attractiveness of con¬ 
juring as a hobby. My aim shall be, in the limited 
space at my disposal, to show boys how they may 
derive the utmost possible amount of pleasure 
from the study and practice of magic. 

After he has seen a conjuring performance for 
the first time the average boy is usually seized with 
a desire to become a conjurer. At the first oppor¬ 
tunity he goes to a shop, buys a few pieces of con¬ 
juring apparatus, skims through the instructions, 
tries to follow them in practice, fails hopelessly, and 
becomes disgusted with the whole thing. The boy 
decides, for the time being, that conjuring is no 
hobby for him, but after he has seen another pro¬ 
fessional conjurer at work he is again overwhelmed 
by the fascination of magic, and he makes another 
attempt to become a conjurer. Maybe he fails 
again, and very possibly this procedure is repeated 
several times. If the young student is very enthu¬ 
siastic he may eventually blunder on the right path 
to success, but he would have found it much more 
quickly and with much less trouble and expense to 
himself if he had asked someone to tell him the way. 

167 


i68 Hobbies 


That is what I propose to do—to show my 
readers the way to sueeess in conjuring, and perhaps 
the best plan will be to ask each reader to imagine 
that he is sitting in this room with me and that 
I am addressing him personally. I say then to my 
pupil: 

If you were going in for keeping rabbits, or some 
other animals, as a hobby, you would certainly 
take the trouble to learn something about those 
animals, how they should be kept, what they eat, 
and so on, before you acquired the first pet. 

You should approach the study of conjuring 
in the same way. Learn something about it. Your 
simplest, best, and most economical plan is to get 
a copy of Professor Hoffmann’s book, “ Modern 
Magic,” and study it carefully. It is one of the 
“ classics ” of conjuring, and there is no better book 
for a beginner. I advise you to read it all through, 
from the first word to the last. To do that will 
take a considerable amount of time, but it will be 
time well spent. When you have finished that 
book your eyes will have been opened, and you 
will have a good working knowledge of magic. 
You will have learned, for instance, that conjuring 
does not consist in a display of manual or digital 
dexterity, that some of the finest magical experi¬ 
ments are brought about by very simple means, and 
that the one thing which the conjurer has to trouble 
about when he is giving a performance is the effect 
which he produces on the minds of his audience. 
The methods by which he produces that effect 
are the conjurer’s own affair; the audience are 
not concerned with them, and do not trouble about 






Miscellaneous Hobbies 169 

them. If the conjurer can produce the right effect 
in a perfectly simple manner, by a method which 
is quite easy, so much the better for the conjurer. 
There are, of course, a great many magical experi¬ 
ments which demand a very high standard of skill 
on the part of the performer, but they are not 
necessarily the most effective to an audience. 

You will have gained another great benefit from 
studying the book I have mentioned. It will have 
helped you to form your own taste in conjuring. 
You will know in what pm’ticular kind of magical 
effects you wish to specialize. Most beginners 
start off with the desire to do the most difficult 
things; they usually want to become sleight-of- 
hand performers in five minutes ! They think that 
it must be a very fine thing to rely entirely on their 
hands for the production of their magical effects. 

I will let you into a seeret. Very, very few 
performers, even among those who apparently may 
be classed as sleight-of-hand men, rely entirely on 
their hands for the effects they produce. Many of 
them use little hidden pieces of apparatus, known 
technically as “ fakes,” to make their work easier 
for them, and when they do this they cease to be 
exponents of pure sleight-of-hand, but their audiences 
are none the wiser! You will soon find that if 
you are going to limit yourself to tricks of pure 
sleight of hand you will not go very far as a con¬ 
jurer, and your programme will be very short, 
and it will need incessant rehearsals. 

(I use the word “ tricks ” in this chapter in the 
popular sense ; strictly speaking, a trick is an in¬ 
vention, by means of which a certain principle is 

L 





170 Hobbies 

utilized for the produetion of a given result. In 
the same way, a magieal effect is the final result 
due to the use of a certain trick, or tricks in com¬ 
bination. A magical experiment consists in the 
production of a magical effect, and a feat of magic 
consists in the successful performance of a magical 
experiment. But, as I have said, I will be popular 
for the moment, and we will talk about “ tricks.’’) 

I have not advised you to study Professor Hoff¬ 
mann’s book with the idea that you should try any 
of the tricks he explains—at least, not yet. You 
have not arrived at that stage in your magical 
education. Very possibly, long before you have 
come to the end of the book, you will be saying 
to yourself: “ Oh, these things are out of date. 

This apparatus is too obviously a trick ; no one 
would use this nowadays.” Quite so. The book 
was written many years ago, and some of the methods 
which the author explains have been superseded 
by others. But I still affirm that the groundwork 
of magic is in that book, and that when you have 
got your foundation laid properly you can start 
to build on it yourself. 

You can learn from that book how to palm a 
penny, how to palm a card, how to change one'card 
for another, and so on. I advise you to learn none 
of these things at the outset of your magical career, 
because very possibly to do that may be a mere 
waste of time. The time to learn how to palm a card 
neatly is when you have decided to learn a trick 
in which a card must be palmed, and even then, 
if you ean think of a way of doing the trick without 
palming the card, I should strongly advise you to 





Miscellaneous Hobbies 


171 

do so. Get out of your head the idea that con¬ 
juring consists in doing the most wonderful things 
with your hands. Nothing of the kind. Conjuring 
is a form of entertainment—nothing more, nothing 
less. Conjuring does not consist in setting the 
audience a puzzle and then asking them to solve it 
by discovering the secret. The secret you employ 
is a secondary matter. Your task as a conjurer 
is to entertain your audience, and as a means to that 
end you apparently achieve the impossible and that 
without an effort on your part. 

Therefore be very careful to see, when you 
come to do your first trick, that the audience really 
understand what it is you are apparently doing. 
If you leave the audience in the dark your perform¬ 
ance is a failure. For example, if you wrap a penny 
in one handkerchief and a florin in another handker¬ 
chief and then apparently make the coins change 
places the whole effect of the trick is lost unless 
you make the audience remember' which handker¬ 
chief originally contained the penny and which the 
florin. You need not worry so much about the 
end of the trick; the audience can see that for 
themselves. Do not forget that while you are 
inducing your audience to understand clearly all 
you are apparently doing in a trick you must also 
entertain your audience by being as bright and 
amusing as possible. Some tricks and illusions 
require a certain solemnity of manner to make them 
thoroughly effective, but they are not likely to come 
your way just yet. 

A conjurer’s conversation (known technically as 
“ patter ”) frequently serves a double purpose: 








172 


Hobbies 



“ If I cover those you have just seen, 
you see the other two.” 


sometimes it 
amuses and in¬ 
structs the audi¬ 
ence at the same 
time—tells them 
what is going on 
—and sometimes 
it amuses and mis¬ 
directs the atten¬ 


tion of the audience at the same time. Hence there are 
tricks which cannot be done without “ patter,” because 
if they were performed in silence the audience would 
see through them. I am going to explam a trick of 
that kind, and I purposely begin wdth this trick 
because it is easy, effective, and requires no apparatus. 
You can do it anywhere with borrowed articles. 

Take a large silk handkerchief or a dinner napkin 
and spread it out flat on a table with a thick 
cloth on it, or on the carpet. (You see, you do not 
even need a table for this trick.) Near the four 
corners of the handkerchief place four pennies. 
You will also need two stiff square envelopes. In 
order to make the working of this experiment quite 
clear I propose to call the four corners of the hand¬ 
kerchief by numbers, thus : 

1 2 


8 4 

Hold an envelope in each hand, with the fingers 
underneath it and the thumb on the top. Tell 
your little audience that what you are about to do 
should produce an optical illusion, and then say 
something like this : 
















Miscellaneous Hobbies 


173 


** If I cover the two pennies at the bottom of 
the square you see the top two.” (Suit your actions 
to the words all through the experiment.) “ If 
I cover the two on the left you see the two on the 
right; if I cover two diagonally opposite (2 and 3) 
you see the other two diagonally opposite, and if 
I cover those you have just seen (1 and 4) you see 
the other two. If I cover the top two you see the 
bottom two, and if I cover the two on the right 
you see the two on the left. (Leave the envelope 
at 2 and bring the other envelope, which has just 
covered 4, to 3, covering the penny there.) 

Now for a word of explanation, because in this 
introduction to the experiment you have really 
done something which the audience do not know you 
have done. Go back to the previous paragraph, 
and you will see that you finish up by saying : “If 
I cover the top two you see the bottom two, and if 

1 cover the two on the right you see the two on the 
left.” When you covered the top two your right 
hand was naturally on Number 2, and when you 
covered 2 and 4 the hand which had covered 

2 was brought 
down to 4 and the 
left hand was 
brought over to 2. 

In that last move¬ 
ment you have an 
important part of 
the trick. As the 
right-hand 


en- 



Fig. 2.—The penny is 
apparently placed on the 
(able under the handker- 
, chief but is really dropped 

Velope comes away fingers of the left hand (indicated 

from 2 the left- by dotted lines), under the handkerchief. 








Hobbies 


174 

hand envelope covers that spot so that the audience 
do not see that when you covered 2 with the right- 
hand envelope that hand secretly picked up the penny 
at that corner and held it under the envelope. The 
other envelope is left at 2, and the envelope which 
you hold over 4 for a second is then placed with the 
penny which you have held under it over 3. Thus, 
unknown to the audience, there are now two pennies 
under the envelope at 3 and none at 2. 

How are you going to pick up the penny under 
the envelope so that the audience do not see any 
clumsy movements of the fingers ? Nothing simpler. 
Remember that your thumb is on the top of the 
envelope; as you cover the penny merely press 
down on one side of it with your thumb and if the 
cloth on the table is fairly thick you will find that 
pressure on one side of the penny with the thumb 
raises the other side slightly ; the fingers are slipped 
under the penny and hold it flat against the envelope. 
You have no palming to learn ; the envelope covers 
the penny as it lies on the fingers of the right hand. 
You can learn that simple movement of picking 
up the penny under the envelope in five minutes, 
but what you cannot learn in five minutes is the way 
of saying your introduction and making the necessary 
movements with your hands in an easy, natural 
manner. Don’t hurry about it. Directly you have 
secretly picked up the penny at 2 you will naturally 
feel inclined to get the other envelope quickly down 
on to the vacant corner 2, but do not appear to be 
in any hurry. Make all your movements slowly 
and deliberately. Now you have the penny under 
the envelope as you hold the envelope for a second 






Miscellaneous Hobbies 175 

to cover 4, but you at once bring it over to 3 and 
leave the extra penny there, but so far as the audience 
are concerned you have merely been eovering and 
uncovering the pennies, two at a time, with the 
envelopes. Now we advance quickly to the climax 
of our experiment. 

Pick up the penny at 4 with your right hand. 
Lift the corner of the handkerchief at 3 with your 
left hand ; the thumb should be on the top of the 
handkerchief and the fingers underneath. Openly 
place the penny under the corner of the handkerchief 
which is being held up a little way with your left 
hand and instantly take away the right hand ; the 
audience will see that the hand is empty and will 
naturally think that you have merely slipped the 
penny under the handkerchief, but what you really 
did was to drop the penny on the fingers of the left 
hand which is raising the corner of the handkerchief. 
Tell the penny to pass through the handkerchief; 
pick up the envelope at 3 with the right hand, and 
as you draw the left hand away from the handker¬ 
chief take the envelope in that hand, thus covering 
the penny which you put there under the hand¬ 
kerchief. The audience see the two pennies already 
at 3 and think that the penny which you put under 
the handkerchief really passed through it in some 
mysterious way. Place the envelope in the left hand 
over the two pennies, taking care not to make any 
chink of the penny against the other two. Unknown 
to the audience there are now three pennies under 
the envelope at 3. 

Pick up the penny at 1, and repeat all the last 
movements of pretending to slip the penny under 









176 . Hobbies 

the corner at 3, finally leaving the four pennies 
under the envelope at 3. Now, the audience believe 
that there are only three pennies there, and that 
the envelope at 2 covers the fourth penny. There¬ 
fore, you can bring this little trick to a brilliant 
finish by saying : 

“ The last penny travels very quickly.” Give 
the envelope at 2 a little click with your thumb 
and second finger and pick it up. The audience 
should be considerably surprised to see that the 
penny which they believed to be there has vanished, 
and before they have recovered from that surprise 
you raise the other envelope with your left hand 
and show the four pennies there. 

Now you must practise that trick until you can 
do it perfectly, because it is within the reach of every 
boy ; if you cannot do that trick well you are not 
likely to make a conjurer. Please note that it is 
a trick of pure sleight of hand, but sleight of hand 
of the simplest kind, and it is simple because you 
misdirect the attention of the audience in your 
opening introduction. You will also note that 
without that introduction you could not make the 
trick effective, because you would have no excuse 
for changing the positions of the envelopes several 
times before you started to carry out the rest of 
the experiment. 

And now, since I am sure you are longing to 
do something which is much more difficult, I will 
show you the simplest way of doing a famous sleight- 
of-hand trick, but it is not pure sleight of hand, 
because you employ one secret piece of apparatus 
to help you. I have in mind the trick which is 






Miscellaneous Hobbies 177 

known to conjurers as “ The Billiard Balls,” but 
sinee you will use balls which are mueh smaller 
than billiard balls, I suggest that you tell your 
audience that the ball with whieh you are going to 
start the trick is a bagatelle ball. 

The effect of the trick is quite simple and straight¬ 
forward. You hold one ball between the tips of 
the first finger and thumb of your right hand and 
produce a second ball between the first and seeond 
fingers ; you subsequently produce another ball 
between your seeond and third fingers, and another 
between your third and little fingers. Then you 
drop all four balls on to a tray and give them out 
for examination ; they are solid, and there is no 
seeret mechanism in them ; anyone may examine 
them. 

Unknown to the audienee, you need a tiny piece 
of apparatus. This is half of a hollow ball whieh 
matches the other balls you are going to use ; this 
thing is known technically as a “ shell,” so we will 
call it by that name. 

To prepare for the trick put two of the balls 
into the inside poeket of your coat, on the right- 
hand side. One ball is placed at the top of the 
left-hand pocket of the trousers, so that when you 
get your fingers into the top of the poeket you can 
easily hook the ball out into the hand. The shell 
is placed in the right-hand trousers poeket and 
you come forward with the fourth ball in your hand ; 
tap it on the table so that everyone may be convinced 
that it is a solid ball. Then hold it in the right 
hand, with the thumb on one side and all the fingers 
on the other (though you will not need all the fingers 





178 Hobbies 

to hold the ball) and the back of the hand towards 
the audience. Say to your audience : 

“This little ball has a peculiar knack of passing 
through solid objects; sometimes, for instance, 
it will go right through my leg.” 

While you are saying this put the left thumb 
under the ball and your fingers over it, and appar¬ 
ently take it away from the right hand. What 
you really do is to let the ball slip down into the 
right hand, and you do this by merely taking the 
right thumb away from it. When you have done 
this you must turn your right hand round so that 
the fingers are downwards and the back of the hand 
is towards the audience ; the ball is concealed by 
bending the fingers slightly. The audience believe 
that you have taken the ball away with your left 
hand, and you must hold the hand in the right way, 
with the fingers closed round, as they would be closed 
if the ball was really there. (Put a ball into the 
left hand, close the fingers over it, and then note 
carefully the appearance of the hand. Then imitate 
that appearance when the ball is not in the hand.) 

The position of things at the moment is this : 
The audience believe that the ball is in the left hand, 
but it is in the right. The right hand is brought 
down quickly behind the right leg, and the left hand 
spanks the same leg. The right hand produces the 
ball from the back of the leg. 

All these movements are made very quickly, 
while you are saying : “ Sometimes, for instance, 

it passes right through my leg.” Continue in this 
way : 

“ Sometimes it goes only half-way through.” 






Miscellaneous Hobbies 179 

Hold the ball in the same position as at first 
in the right hand. Bring the left hand towards the 
ball as though you were going to take it in that hand, 
and repeat the other movements, but instead of 
producing the ball from the back of your right 
leg slip your hand into your pocket and bring it out 
again with the shell over the ball. The appearance 
of the ball is not altered, and the audience should 
not suspect you of having added anything to it. 

Openly take the ball in your left hand for a 
moment. Your secret object in doing this is to 



The appearance of the second ball, 

enable you to put it back in the right hand in the 
correct position for the trick. To ascertain the 
correct position stand for a moment near a wall. 
The shell on the ball should face the audience and 
the edge of the shell should be parallel to the wall. 
The shell should be held on the ball by having the 
thumb under it near the edge, and the first finger 
on the top, also near the edge. 

Now turn the body slightly to the left and swing 
the arm right round to the left and back to its original 
position, while you say : “ Just one small bagatelle 
ball.” Your object in moving the hand in this 
way was apparently to show your audience that 
you had only one ball in your hand, but your real 











Hobbies 


i8o 


reason for the movement of the body and arm was 
to enable you to hook out the ball from the top 
of the left-hand pocket of your trousers and conceal 
it for a moment in that hand. You need not palm 
it; hold it against the inside of the hand by bending 
the third finger. 

The other ball with the shell in front of it is held 
stationary for a second or two. Then say : “ One 
and one make—two ” ; at the same time raise the 
hand a few inches and bring it down again. This 
movement prevents the audience from seeing another 
movement which you do not want them to see, 
because when you moved your hand you also brought 
your second finger close to the thumb, and therefore 
under the ball, and you lifted the ball out of the 
shell and held it between the first and second fingers. 
The audience are really looking at the shell between 
the thumb and first finger and the ball between the 
first and second fingers, but they think they are 
looking at two solid balls, and to assist in this decep¬ 
tion you at once bring the shell away with the left 
hand (in which, you will remember, you have a 
ball concealed). The shell goes over the ball in 
the left hand. The first ball is then allowed to drop 
into the right hand, and you knock the two balls 
together to prove that they are solid. 

Now return both balls to the right hand, the 
one with the shell over it to its original position 
between the first finger and thumb and the other 
between the second and third fingers, near the tips 
of the fingers. This position leaves a space between 
the first and second fingers. 

Making the same movements as before, lift the 





Miscellaneous Hobbies i8i 

ball out of the shell again with the second finger, 
and you appear to the audience to have produced 
a third ball. Now, without moving the right hand, 
bring the left hand up to it and apparently take away 
the ball between the first and second fingers, but what 
you really do is to let it slip back into the shell. 

Your left hand is apparently holding a ball. 
Extend your right hand upwards, bring the left 
hand towards the right wrist, and make a movement 
as though you were dropping the ball from your 
left hand down the sleeve. Say to your audience : 

“ This is really the easy part of the trick. I 
drop the ball in at one end of the sleeve, raise the 
arm, and it comes out of the other. Here it is. 
Of course you want a big sleeve.” 

You pretend to take a ball from the armhole 
of the coat sleeve, but what you really do is to 
slip the hand into the inside pocket of your coat 
(in which you placed two balls before you began 
the performance), hide one in the hand and produce 
the other. To hide the ball merely hold it against 
the palm by bending the third finger into the hand. 

The right hand is holding a ball with the shell 
over it between the first finger and thumb and a 
ball between the second and third fingers. Place 
the ball which is in the left hand between the tips 
of the third and little fingers of the right hand. 
Remember that you have a ball concealed in your 
left hand, so that you must be careful not to show 
the palm of the hand to the audience while you 
are doing this. 

Now, all you have to do in order to produce 
the fourth ball at the tips of the fingers of the right 







Hobbies 


182 

hand is to lift the ball out of the shell, and you 
appear to have four balls there. Bring the shell 
away at onee with the left hand, at the same time 
slipping the ball in that hand into the shell. Knoek 
one of the balls in the right hand against the ball 
in the left and then put the ball in the left hand 
baek into the right, between the first finger and thumb. 
The shell is eoneealed for a moment in the left hand. 
Say to your audienee : 

“ I will show you an easy way of making all 
four balls disappear at onee.” This is apparently 
just a little joke of yours, beeause you merely put 
your left hand into one of your poekets, pull out a 
handkerehief, and throw it over the balls. In taking 
out the handkerehief from your poeket you took 
eare to leave the shell behind in that poeket, and so 
at the eonelusion of the triek you have nothing to 
hide. You ean finish in this way : 

“ Of eourse there is not very mueh of a triek 
in making the balls disappear in that way, and as 
a matter of faet they eannot disappear in any way 
beeause they are quite solid.” Then drop them 
on to a tray and let the audienee examine them 
if they wish to do so. 

I imagine that the billiard ball triek must have 
been performed at our entertainment some thousands 
of times by various performers ; yet it is a triek 
whieh is always new and is always appreeiated by 
an audienee when it is done neatly and well. 
Naturally, I have had to simplify the triek a good 
deal in plaees, but I do not think that any ordinary 
audienee will deteet any differenee in the experiment. 

I put this triek in beeause I know from experienee 







Miscellaneous Hobbies 183 

that boys like to practise a trick in which they have 
to use their hands and lingers dexterously. You 
must not expect to learn the trick in five minutes 
or in five days ; when you know it you know a very 
good trick. You can purchase the materials for 
the trick at any conjuring shop, and you will prob¬ 
ably find that the usual set of apparatus consists 
of three balls and the shell, but a fourth ball should 
be bought. Take care not to choose balls which 
are too big for your hands ; the larger the balls 
the more difficult the trick. 

Here is a trick which requires very little skill, 
but you need to be fairly quick at simple addition 
and subtraction. This trick has also been per¬ 
formed on my stage, but I have simplified it, and at 
the same time, I think, improved it. 

You show a clean slate to the audience ; they 
see both sides of it. In order that the audience 
may be convinced that you do not change the slate 
you mark one side of it by writing in chalk any 
initials they choose. You wrap the slate in a sheet 
of newspaper and give it to a member of your 
audience to hold for a moment. Then you take a 
small blank card to a member of your audience 
and ask him to write any one figure he pleases on 
it. You hand the card round and have several 
figures written underneath each other in a single 
column. Someone adds up the column of figures 
and reads out the result. We will suppose the number 
is thirty-four. You quickly tear the card into the 
same number of pieces (the exact number is immaterial 
but you need an excuse for tearing up the card), 
and at the same time call upon your good fairy 







184 


Hobbies 



to write the answer 
to the sum on thejj 
blank side of the 
slate. 

The person hold¬ 
ing the slate un¬ 
covers it and fiuds j 
the right answer! 
to the sum there. 


Fig. 5.—The flap is dropped on the table . 

and is afterwards hidden by a sheet of turning the Slate 


newspaper. 


over he sees the 
initials chosen for the marking of the slate; it is 
obvious, therefore, that the slate has not been 
changed ; it is equally obvious, since a member of 
the audience is holding the slate, that it has not 
been prepared in any way. 

I would also remind you that the card on which 
the audience set their sum is a blank card until 
they write on it, and the card is not changed. 

This trick is performed with what is known as 
a “ flap slate.” The slate is usually made of painted 
millboard fitted into a wooden frame ; a loose piece 
of painted millboard—the “ flap ”—fits into the 
frame but falls out directly you turn the slate over.* 

To present the trick place three or four sheets 
of newspaper on your table and the slate, with the 
flap side upwards, on the paper. Written on the 
slate itself but concealed by the “ flap ” is a number 
you have selected yourself for the trick ; we will 
imagine it is 34. 

Pick up the slate with the fingers on the top 
of the flap and the thumb below the slate. Turn 
the slate over two or three times, taking care not 













Miscellaneous Hobbies 


185 


to let the flap fall away, and write on the plain side 
of the slate (the side without the “ flap ”) any 
initials chosen by the audience. Hold the slate 
with the right hand so that they can see the initials. 
Pick up all the sheets of newspaper with the left 
hand, so that everyone can see you have nothing 
concealed under the papers. Say to your audience : 

“ I think one piece of paper will be enough ; 
I am going to wrap the slate in this sheet of paper.’ 

While you are separating the top sheet from the 
others you are holding the slate in your right hand 
and the papers in your left. It is an easy matter 
to let the flap fall off the slate on to the table and 
to drop one of the sheets of paper over it. The slate 
is immediately wrapped up, and as the audience 
saw the initials chosen for the marking of the slate 
they are not likely to suspect that the other side 
of the slate is not what it was when they saw the 
slate in the first place. 

Having wrapped up the slate, give it to someone 
to hold, and ask them to put it on their lap and 
place both hands on it. Then take your plain card 
and a pencil to 


someone and ask 
that a figure may 
be written on it. 

Other figures are 
added by other 
members of your 
audience. 

Now you know 6.—Showing the flap (indicated by 

that the figure on jotted lines) now hidden by a sheet of 

the slate is 34, newspaper. 



M 














i86 Hobbies 

therefore you have to watch over the figures which 
are being written on the card, and when they 
exceed 25 say : “ That will do, thank you,” and 

take the card away. (Do you see why you must 
mentally add the figures as they are written down 
and stop when they total 25 ? If you allowed the 
audience to go beyond that number and handed 
the card for the addition of one more number it 
is just possible that the last person might add a 
“ nine,” and then the total of the figures on the 
card would amount to more than thirty-four, which 
is the number on the slate, and therefore the trick 
would fail.) 

It does not matter if the last number written 
on the card increases the total to 33, but what does 
matter is your accuracy in adding the figures “ in 
your head ” as they are written down. We will 
suppose that the last figure brings the total to 29. 
You take the pencil and your card in your hand, 
draw a little line under the column of figures, secretly 
add a “ 5 ” to the column, and ask someone to add 
up the sum. It does not matter what figures are 
written down ; you secretly add a figure which brings 
the total to the figures on the slate, and you do this 
while you are apparently merely drawing a line at 
the bottom of the column of figures. Then you tear 
the card up into little pieces—in case any inquisitive 
person should want to examine the card afterwards 
and check off the figures with those who wrote 
them. When the card is in pieces the trick is prac¬ 
tically over. The person holding the slate is asked 
to uncover it and hold it up so that everyone may 
see it, and while this is being done the conjurer 





Miscellaneous Hobbies 187 

quietly removes the sheets of paper, and, of course, 
the flap under them. 

I conclude with a simple but very effective 
card trick—one that appears to be difficult but is 
not. The conjurer takes a pack of cards to his 
audience and asks three persons to take a card 
apiece. He collects the cards, places them on the 
table for a moment, and holds the pack in his left 
hand with one side of the pack towards the audience. 
The conjurer says : 

. “ I am going to place these cards in three different 

places in the pack,” and he suits the action to the 
words, calling attention to the fact that the cards 
are well separated. 

“ As a matter of fact,” he continues, “ it does 
not matter where the cards go or how they go, 
because I am going to shuffle the pack.” (This is 
done.) “ I think you must be satisfied by now that 
the three cards which were selected are now well 
mixed up with the others. Now, this is a thought¬ 
reading trick. I am going to deal the cards slowly, 
one at a time, and so that I shall not get a glimpse 
of any one of them I will hold the pack behind my 
back and produce them one at a time. When you 
see the card which you chose will you please think 
of the word ‘ Stop,’ and then transfer the thought 
to me, and I shall take the hint and stop dealing at 
your card.” 

The conjurer puts the pack behind his back, 
produces the cards one at a time, and stops at the 
three chosen cards ; the persons who chose them 
admit that the conjurer has done the trick correctly. 

But the effect was not produced by thought- 







i88 Hobbies 

reading. When the conjurer put the three cards 
back into the pack he dug his thumb nail into the 
right-hand corner of the back of each of them; 
this action produced a tiny bump on the other 
side of each of the cards. When the conjurer was 
dealing out the cards all he had to do was to feel 
with his first finger for the bump on the corner of 
each of the three cards. Quite simple and quite 
effective. This trick has been performed on our 
stage, but I have simplified the working of it; the 
trick could be done in a variety of ways. 

In conclusion, a word or two of advice. Cul¬ 
tivate a pleasant manner. Learn your patter by 
heart, but do not repeat it in parrot-like fashion. 
Do not show a trick to anyone until you can do it 
properly. There is only one word on the signpost 
pointing to success in conjuring, and that word is 
—practice. Do not attempt to learn a lot of tricks. 
Be content with a few, but know them thoroughly ; 
then you Avill be what you set out to be—a conjurer. 

Neville Maskelyne. 






VENTRILOQUISM 


M ost boys have read Cockton’s novel “Valen¬ 
tine Vox,” and not a few have experienced a 
desire to emulate the hero of that entertaining story. 
A regard for the truth compels me to state that the 
majority of the feats attributed to Valentine are 
outside the range of possibility—quite beyond the 
power of the most expert ventriloquist who ever 
lived. Nevertheless, many of his “ experiments ” 
are possible of accomplishment—if you know how. 
And that is what I have to tell you. 

“Is it a gift ? ” is the first and most natural 
question asked by persons on becoming interested 
in the subject of ventriloquism. No, it is not. 
Whilst it is perfectly true that some persons have a 
much greater natural aptitude for its acquisition 
than others, it is nevertheless a fact that ventriloquism 
is an acquired art; that is to say, one’s ability to 
ventriloquize does not depend upon any peculiar 
or special formation of the vocal organs. Natural 
qualifications are necessary to attain proficiency in 
ventriloquism, as in anything else. The student 
must have sound lungs, a correct ear, strength and 
flexibility in the throat, and the skill to imitate. 
Further, he must have some competence as an actor, 
for the power to lead people’s judgment astray with¬ 
out seeming to do so is one of the chief weapons in 
the ventriloquist’s armoury, and a considerable factor 
in determining whether a person will be successful 
in the practice of the art. 

189 


igo Hobbies 

“ What is ventriloquism ? ” is the next question. 
It is correetly defined in Gregory’s “ Dietionary of 
Arts and Seiences ” as “an art by whieh certain 
persons can so modify the voice as to make it appear 
to the audience to proceed from a distance. An 
exquisite delicacy of ear perceives every difference 
whieh change of place produces in the same sounds. 
Possessed of such an ear, and a sufficient command 
over the organs of speech to produce a sound in all 
respects similar to another proceeding from any 
distant spot, to the audience the sound which the 
ventriloquist utters must appear to proceed from 
that spot. By a peculiar modification of the organs 
of speech, a sound can be produced which in faintness, 
tone, body, and every other sensible quality, per¬ 
fectly resembles a sound delivered, say, from the 
roof of a house opposite ; the ear will naturally, 
without examination, refer it to that situation and 
distance, the sound which the person hears being 
only a sign which he has from infancy been accustomed 
by experience to associate with the idea of a person 
speaking from a housetop.” 

Contrary to popular belief, the ventriloquist 
cannot “ throw ” his voice ; that is to say, he cannot 
make his voice explode at a distant spot without any 
sound being perceptible in the intervening space 
between the ventriloquist and the place where the 
sound appears. What the ventriloquist can do is 
to so modify his voice that it appears to proceed 
from a spot he has previously indicated by word or 
action. 

Although the word “ ventriloquism ” as popu¬ 
larly understood covers the entire range of vocal 







Miscellaneous Hobbies 191 

illusion, there are in faet three divisions, viz. ven¬ 
triloquism proper, colloquialism and polyphonism. 

Ventriloquism proper is the imitation of sounds 
as they appear when heard from a distance. The 
technical term is “ distant voice,” and it is brought 
into play by the performer when, for instance, he 
holds a conversation with an imaginary man on the 
roof, or in the cellar. It is also used when imitating 
the cry of a boy in a box with the lid shut, the muffled 
sound in this case being practically identical with 
the “ distant ” voice. 

Colloquialism is the imitation of the human voice 
without any “ distant ” effect, when, for example, 
the entertainer apparently conducts a conversation 
with one or more mechanical dolls. 

Polyphonism is really mimicry, the art of imitating 
sounds such as the cries of animals and birds, musical 
instruments, etc., without any attempt to deceive 
the listener as to the source of such sounds. The 
ventriloquist aims at deception, in that the sound 
he produces is not supposed to originate with him, 
but to come from some more or less distant spot. 
The polyphonist, on the contrary, simply imitates. 

The foregoing is more or less by way of intro¬ 
duction and explanation, and we now come to the 
consideration of our subject from the practical side. 
It is not easy to explain in print everything connected 
with the art, but I will endeavour to convey my mean¬ 
ing in as few and as simple words as possible, so that 
the student may not be put to unnecessary trouble 
in picking out the essential points. 

Before any attempt is made to experiment with 
the voice, you must be able to control the breath 








192 Hobbies 

SO that you may hold it, without straining, for a 
considerable time. The correet way to breathe is 
through the nose, not through the mouth. Stand 
ereet, take a deep breath through the nostrils, retain 
it in the lungs as long as possible, and then let it out 
gradually through the mouth. You will appreciate 
the value of this power to retain the breath later 
on when you have to give off a long sentence in a 
ventriloquial voice. 

Next you must learn to eontrol the faeial museles, 
so that you may be able to talk not only without 
movement of the lips, but also with absolute rigidity 
of countenance. Although it requires a considerable 
amount of praetice to enable one to talk freely and 
naturally without moving the lips and nerves of the 
faee, it is by no means difficult to accomplish. Prac¬ 
tise before a looking-glass. Stand up, keep the mouth 
almost elosed, so that the upper teeth just touch the 
lower lip, and wateh that the expression of the faee 
is a natural one. 

The student may now commence to artieulate. 
Standing in front of the looking-glass, and keeping 
the mouth in the position just indieated, go right 
through the alphabet without moving the lips. 
The vowels will present no diffieulty, but B, P, M, 
and to a smaller extent F, and V, may eause trouble. 
Repeat the alphabet over and over again, for the 
objeet is twofold : first to aequire the habit of talking 
without faeial movement, and secondly to articulate 
plainly with the lips still. Try it first by foreing the 
sound against the top teeth, keeping the tongue as 
low down in the mouth as possible. Then go through 
the exercise again, raising the tongue a little and 






Miscellaneous Hobbies 193 

forcing the sound towards the back part of the roof 
of the mouth. You will find this enables you to 
repeat the alphabet in two quite distinct tones of 
voice. Next repeat sentences. A recitation, or any 
nonsense will do. 

To become a successful ventriloquist one must be 
able to appreciate sound as it falls on the ear, so 
that the distant sound may be imitated. Nature is 
of great assistance to the ventriloquist in this respect, 
for it is very difficult to locate the exact direction 
and distance of a sound. If a person calls to you 
in the street, for example, and is not in sight at the 
moment, it is as likely as not you will turn in the 
wroncr direction to ascertain whence the sound came. 

o 

This uncertainty is very helpful to the ventriloquist, 
and it is the business of the ventriloquist to imitate 
sounds, not as they are heard at their source, but 
as they appear when they reach the ear. 

But the ventriloquist must do something more 
than merely imitate sounds. He must “ act ” at 
all times. He must appear to be one of the audience 
himself, asking questions on their behalf, and appar¬ 
ently as anxious to hear the answer as anyone 
present. A good actor will make a much more 
successful ventriloquist than one who is an indifferent 
actor, because he is able by acting his part to govern 
the imagination of those who are looking on. 

Now we come to the mastery of the three principal 
“ voices ” in ventriloquism—the “ distant ” voice, 
the “ semi-distant ” voice, and the “ colloquial 
voice. The “ distant ” voice, as has been said, and 
as its name implies, is the voice used when the per¬ 
former desires to bring about the illusion of a person 






194 Hobbies 

calling from some distant spot. Although there are 
several modifications, all “ distant ” voices are prac¬ 
tically the same. Call out “ Hi ! ” in your natural 
voice, prolonging it a little, and opening the mouth 
well. Then close the mouth, letting the top teeth 
just touch the inside of the lower lip, and call out 
“ Hi ! ” again, one octave above, but keeping the 
sound at the back of the throat, turning the tongue 
towards the roof of the mouth and slightly straining 
the stomach. You will find the sound is exactly 
the same as if a person had answered your call from 
a distance. If when making this second “ Hi ! ” 
sound you keep your mouth still, and by word or 
action direct the attention of listeners to the spot 
from which you desire they should imagine the voice 
proceeds, the illusion will be complete. And there 
you have the secret of the “ distant ” voice in a 
nutshell. It can be made to approach or recede. 
To bring the voice nearer, the sound has to be released 
gradually from the back of the throat and brought 
forward in the mouth. If the voice has to die away 
in the distance, you just reverse the process. 

The “ semi-distant ” voice is a modification of 
the “ distant ” voice, but sufficiently distinct to 
warrant being dealt with separately. It is the voice 
which is close by, outside the door or window at 
which you are standing. Before commencing the 
study of this voice you must get the sound as it falls 
on the ear well in your mind. If you propose to 
present the illusion of a man answering from the 
other side of a door, get a friend to stand outside 
the door and speak to you. Note the sound of his 
voice as it reaches you and endeavour to imitate it. 








Miscellaneous Hobbies 195 

The faithfulness of the imitation will be the measure 
of your success. Having a clear and definite know¬ 
ledge of the sound, try to reproduce it in the top 
part of the throat, keeping the breath well under 
control so that really you utter the sound without 
breathing. Keep to the same pitch and you will 
get a deadened muffled sound exactly resembling 
a person speaking in a passage with a closed door 
intervening. If the voice is to appear to come through 
a thicker substance, a brick wall, for instance, make 
the sound fainter, but a little higher. 

Now we come to the colloquial voice—utilized 
when one wishes apparently to endow with speech 
one or more mechanical “ figures,” or for conversing 
with an imaginary person behind a screen. To pro¬ 
duce these voices it is not necessary either to modulate 
or “ throw ” the voice. All colloquial voices, what¬ 
ever the character, are based on two—^the “ old man ” 
voice and the “ old lady ” voice. The “ old man ” 
voice—that is, the imitation of an old man speaking 
behind a screen, or through a “ figure ”—is pro¬ 
duced by turning the tongue back so that the tip 
just touches the roof of the mouth, the ventriloquist 
speaking in as deep a tone as he can assume. Keep 
your lips still, the muscles of the face rigid but natural, 
and let out the sound from that side of the mouth 
nearest the figure supposed to be talking, or the 
screen behind which the man is supposed to be con¬ 
cealed. If you wish to imitate an Irishman or a 
Scotsman the voice is the same, except that the 
dialect is used. The “ boy’s ” voice is produced in 
the same way as the “ old man’s,” except that it 
is pitched higher and the sound sent more in the 








196 Hobbies 

direction of the nose. To get the “ old lady ” voice, 
speak in a high key through the nose, keeping before 
your mind the peculiar squeak used by the “ Punch 
and Judy ” man. This voice should have a kind of 
complaining wail in it. The “ little girl ” voice is 
similar to that of the “ old lady,” except that it is 
pitched in a higher key, is not so full, and is much 
brighter. Whilst the “ old lady ” voice is harsh, 
the “ little girl ” voice should be soft, sweet, and 
rather halting. The “ baby ” voice is very effective 
and easy to acquire. It is similar to the “ little 
girl,” but is pitched still higher, and is forced through 
the nose. If there is a baby in the house, study 
from Nature. These voices form the ventriloquist’s 
stock-in-trade, and from them all others are evolved. 
Master these, and, by altering the pitch and 
tone slightly, you will be able to fit almost any 
character. 

As I have already stated, it is in association with 
these colloquial voices that mechanical “ figures,” or 
dolls, are used, and it may be convenient at this 
stage to give some idea of the make, working, and 
cost of these aids to the ventriloquist, for as a matter 
of fact a ventriloquist entertainment in which a doll 
is used to join in a humorous conversation is generally 
more amusing and acceptable than “ distant voice ” 
effects, and is certainly much easier for the novice. 
The head of a ventriloquial figure is made of papier 
mdche. The jaw moves on a long hinge working 
on a spring. The head is usually fixed to a shaft 
with a lever about half-way down to which is attached 
a wire or string running up to the mouth, so that the 
operator, with the shaft in his grasp, can, by touching 






Miscellaneous Hobbies i97 

the lever with his thumb, open and close the mouth 
at will. The very small dolls have no shaft, but there 
is a hole in the back of the neck. The performer 
grasps the doll at the nape of the neck, puts his 
thumb through the hole, and moves the mouth by 
pressing the hinge. The more expressive heads 
have various additional movements, such as eyes to 
turn, wink, and roll, smile, look surprised, hair fly 
up, etc. These movements add to the fun, but are 
not really necessary. The bodies of ventriloquial 
figures in the smaller and cheaper class are also 
made of papier mdche, but in the case of large figures 
fitted with mechanical movements they are con¬ 
structed mainly of wood. The back of the body is 
open, so that the performer can get hold of the 
shaft, which comes through the neck hole. The 
heads are not attached to the bodies as a rule, but 
can be taken out and placed inside the bodies for 
convenience in travelling. The cost of a good ven¬ 
triloquial figure—and it is best to have a shapeable 
and reliable article rather than the mass of deformity, 
full of traps for the unwary, occasionally to be met 
with in toy shops—is anything between £3 and £10 
or more, according to size and the number of move¬ 
ments 'with which it is fitted. The best and most 
perfect figures are made in Paris, but there are several 
English firms who manufacture for the professional 
entertainers. We cannot advertise them here, but 
if any reader who may be interested cares to 
communicate with me through the Editor of this 
book, I shall be pleased to put him on the right 
track of the real article. Incidentally I may mention 
that I shall be very happy to answer questions put 






198 Hobbies 

to me in the same manner in regard to any points 
in this article the student may not be clear about. 

The third and last point we have to deal with is 
polyphonism: mimicry. If it is hard to convey 
in print one’s actual meaning when dealing with 
ventriloquism, it is a great deal harder to make oneself 
understood when writing of mimicry, because of the 
impossibility of “ spelling ” some sounds. Let the 
ear guide you ; read the following directions, which 
are as explanatory as words can make them ; and 
study from Nature. 

Dogs. —When a dog barks he does not say “ Bow¬ 
wow ”—his lips do not meet. Make the sound 
represented by the words “ Ow ! Ow ! Ow ! ” as 
far down the throat as possible. For a terrier 
bring the tongue forward in the mouth, and for a 
very small dog direct the sound through the nose. 

Cats. —Cats can be imitated by uttering a noise 
like “ ngew-ng-ol-row,” the sound being directed 
through the nose as high as possible. 

Hens. —Press the lips together and utter a suc¬ 
cession of “ tucks,” keeping the tongue well forward 
in the mouth and forcing the sound through the 
closed lips. 

Cock - crowing. —Do not try to say “ Cock-a- 
doodle-doo ! ” Roll the tongue back and make it 
“ Ooo-o-oo-o-ooo,” keeping the sound well down 
in the throat. For the bantam the sound goes 
through the nose. 

Duck. —Roll the tongue back, say “ Waack- 
waack ”—not “ Quack ”—down in the throat, and 
send the sound through the nose. 

Bluebottle Fly. —Press the lips tightly to- 






Miscellaneous Hobbies 199 

gether except at one corner, where you leave just 
sufficient space for the wind to force its way out when 
you blow hard. This causes a vibration which re¬ 
sembles the buzzing of a bluebottle fly or wasp. 

Sawing. —Rest the tongue against the bottom 
teeth, and make a sound as if trying to clear the roof 
of the mouth of phlegm, then draw in the breath 
through the clenched teeth, at the same time imitating 
the action of sawing. 

Opening Bottle of Soda-water.— You are 
supposed to be holding in the left hand a bottle 
containing soda-water or lemonade, and the illusion 
is to force in the stopper, pour out the liquid, and 
drink it. To reproduce the sound of the forcing in 
of the stopper, draw the lower lip over the bottom 
teeth, and press the top teeth firmly down ; force 
the bottom lip outward with an explosive “ fizz ” ; 
keep up a hissing sound whilst going through the 
action of pouring the contents of the bottle into the 
glass, and then carry the glass to the lips. The 
pressure of the edge of the glass against your lip will 
alter the sound, which is gradually reduced in volume 
as the liquid is supposed to disappear. 

We will now assume you have studied the art 
of ventriloquism in its entirety—that is to say, you 
are capable of producing the “ distant voice ” effect, 
can speak through “ figures,” and can imitate sounds 
—and wish to test yourself before your friends in 
the “ Theatre Royal Back Drawing-room.” Let us 
get the “ lay-out ” for a test of this character. 
You have provided yourself with a “ figure ”—say, 
a boy—and you have arranged a dialogue. Take 
the bay-window end of the room for your stage, and 








200 


Hobbies 


seat the audience in rows at a respectable distance. 
Keep people in front of you ; do not let them stand 
at the sides. 

Get as far away from the audience as you con¬ 
veniently can, for in ventriloquism distance certainly 
lends enchantment. The effect is better and in¬ 
finitely easier to attain than when people are crow^ding 
around. You have a folding screen, placed well 
back, with your “ figure ” behind it. Step forward 
and explain in a few words what are your intentions. 
A conjurer should never explain beforehand what he 
is going to do, but a ventriloquist should, because, 
as I have said elsewhere, when people expect to be 
deceived in a ventriloquial sense, they assist by their 
imagination to deceive themselves. Then commence 
with the “ distant voice,’’ calling to Bill on the roof, 
gradually getting the voice nearer until it is behind 
the screen. Bill finds his wife, boy, and little girl 
there. You now get on to the colloquial voices, 
holding a conversation, as humorous as you can 
make it, with the man, woman, girl, and boy behind 
the screen. Send the man off, making his voice fainter 
and fainter as he disappears in the distance, raising the 
pitch and reducing the sound the farther he gets 
away. Now bring the figure of the boy out from 
behind the screen, place him on your knee and carry 
on a previously concocted dialogue. A “ cheeky ” 
boy who asks impertinent questions or returns saucy 
answers will always make a “ hit.” Let him finish 
by singing one verse of a song. Replace the boy 
behind the screen, and then introduce as many of 
the polyphonic imitations as you are capable of. 

Fred Russell. 






THE MICROSCOPE AS A HOBBY 


T he microscope has revolutionized man’s out¬ 
look on life, and, although Nature has not 
yet given up her greatest secrets, step by step we 
advance along the path of progress. One cannot 
do better than make a hobby of the microscope; 
in fact by doing so we open up a new world, and, 
like the pioneers of old, plunge into the unknown. 

Whether you buy a microscope or try, in the 
first instance, to construct one for yourself, does 
not matter very much; even if you make up your 
mind to study nature with the aid of a single lens, 
you will find the microscope hobby a fascinating 
one. If you intend to buy a microscope it is as well, 
first of all, to consider the all-important question 
of funds. Microscopes can be bought new for any 
sum from a shilling or two, up to, well, many pounds ; 
Messrs. Gamage, of Holborn, have a good selection. 
The smaller ones are, of course, in some instances, 
mere toys ; a student’s microscope would probably 
cost anything from 30s. to £3 3s. A good instru¬ 
ment of lower power might be had for 15s. to 20s., 
but the price you -give must depend upon whether 
your ambition induces you to seek for high power, 
or whether you are willing to walk before you run. 

Microscopes can also be bought cheaply, if you 
are content with a second-hand instrument. Tele¬ 
scopes, microscopes, and cameras are frequently 
advertised in the Exchange and Marti but I 
need hardly remind you that care must be taken 

N 201 


202 


Hobbies 


when answering an advertisement; second-hand 
articles are not always in good condition. 

Sketch 5 on the accompanying diagram will 
give you an idea of what a fairly high-powered 
student’s microscope is like. Such an instrument 
would probably cost £3 new. I do not suggest that 
you shall buy one of this kind ; as I said just now, 
that is a question which wdll probably be settled by 
the state of “ the funds.” * 

As you may decide to buy an instrument, I 
should explain that there are two distinct kinds of 
microscopes—that is to say, all of them are either 
simple or compound. In a sense a single convex 
lens (as shown on Sketch 1) is a simple microscope, 
for o, the lens, will magnify a, the object to be viewed. 
Sketch 2, however, shows a simple form of compound 
microscope, the object viewed is enlarged by o (the 
object-glass), and the eye piece (e) presents the 
image to the eye. Of course few compound micro¬ 
scopes are as simple as this one, and on Sketch 4 
you will see a combination of three lenses—the main 
prineiple is the same, however. 

Simple microscopes were undoubtedly the first 
instruments invented, Init just when they came into 
use or who invented them is unknown. It is believed 
that the Chinese had magnifying glasses long ago, 
but simple microscopes seem to have been in use in 
Europe before 1600. One Lieberkuhn brought out 
high-powered instruments of this kind, and glass 
globules, whicli gave great magnifying power over 


* “How to Make a Microscope” {see “Something to Make” in 
Modern Boy’s Library). 







Miscellaneous Hobbies 203 

a very limited space, were much sought after about 
the time that our old friend Samuel Pepys lived. 

Compound microscopes are made in so many 
different styles, and vary so much in power and the 
manner in which the lenses are arranged, that it 
would be impossible to describe even a few of them 
in this article. The point which is of interest to 
anyone about to make a hobby of the microscope 
is that it is possible to get a great deal of pleasure 



Diagram 1 

and instruction out of a simple instrument, but 
for anything like general research work, even if 
conducted for amusement, it is desirable to get a 
compound microscope of fair power. 

I have about a dozen lenses of various kinds, 
and, just before I commenced this article, I made 
a few experiments with some of them. Probably 
many of you own telescopes, and you may like to 
know how I got a combination which made a piece 
of cotton look like, well, rope, and “ drew up ” 

























204 Hobbies 

a scrap of newspaper until it looked as rough as a 
blanket. I took two of the lenses from the eye¬ 
piece section of a Dollond telescope, and placed them 
upon the object-glass taken from a small opera- 
glass—the whole arrangement is shown on Sketch 3. 
INIany'of my readers may like to test some of their 
telescope lenses in this way. 

I have now dealt with the instrument itself, and, 
after some consideration of the “ ways and means,” 
no doubt you have decided what you can afford to 
buy—perchance you have already made the purchase. 
Now what are we to do with our microscope ? 

If you have a cheap instrument it is possible to 
find hundreds of things that are most astonishing, 
even when viewed through a microscope of no more 
power than that possessed by my three lenses (shown 
on Sketch 3). Try a piece of glass-paper, and you 
will see something like the inside of a cave of crystal. 

As it is probable that most of my readers will, 
at any rate, commence with a microscope of com¬ 
paratively low power, they may wish to begin work 
by studying common everyday objects. A great 
deal of pleasure can be obtained by placing ordinary 
flowers under even a simple microscope. Salt grains, 
if looked at in a strong light, are very beautiful. If 
you have a microscope properly fitted with a mirror, 
etc., examine these common objects by reflected and 
also by transmitted light. 

A trip into the country will be an outing indeed 
if you go with the intention of bringing home items 
for the microscope. The sea shore, too, should be 
your “ happy hunting ground ” ; for example. Alum 
Bay sand should be worth examining. Certain 







Miscellaneous Hobbies 205 

seaweeds give good results, in fact, old ocean is a 
perfect store-house of treasures. 

I should, perhaps, add a few words on mounting 
and selecting objects for the microscope. For this 
you will need slides, cover glasses, a section cutting 
knife, dissecting needles, a small pair of scissors, 
etc.; I have already mentioned some of the mounting 
media, and, particularly for botanical specimens, 
methylated spirit, glycerine, and a paint brush are 
needed. 

Let us deal with botany first. My sister, who is 
devoted to this subject, suggests that you proceed 
in the following manner: Study first ordinary 
flowering plants, because they are simplest, then 
proceed to pines, ferns, mosses, seaweed, algae, etc. 
In ordinary plants sections should be cut of stems, 
roots, leaves, etc., flowers should be dissected and 
each small part examined. To cut sections hold 
the specimen between the thumb and fingers of the 
left hand, then slice very thinly, taking care to keep 
the knife always wet with methylated spirit. Remove 
the section from the knife with a small brush, drop 
glycerine upon it, and cover it with a glass slip. 
(I think Messrs. Gamage, Limited, of Holborn, will be 
able to supply all the materials, etc., mentioned here.) 

In sections of leaves (which should be rolled to 
cut) study veins, shapes of different cells, and look 
for pores in under surface. Cut through buds and 
notice the arrangement of young leaves. Young 
marrow or sunflower stems are good specimens. 

In spring the catkins of trees, such as the willow, 
the poplar, and the hazel, might be studied. With 
the needle dissect the catkin, and put each floret 








2o 6 Hobbies 


on the slide. With small plants study all parts as 
far as possible—roots, stems, leaves, flowers, and 
fruits. Some small fresh-water algae are very suit¬ 
able for beginners, these may be plaeed on the slide 
whole, and, being fairly transparent, the cell forma¬ 
tion can be seen. Those specimens which are best 
mounted dry should be treated in the manner given 
below. 

Ebonite cells should be obtained for mounting 
dry objects, and these cells should be fastened upon 
glass strips with some of the special cements sold 
for this purpose. For very minute entomological 
specimens use mounting needles (for lifting) and gum. 
In mounting dry objects take care that there is no 
damp in the cell before cementing the thin cover 
glass over it. Some specimens are mounted in 
Canada balsam. 

The scales of insects are interesting things to 
study and so are the various minute parts of tiny 
insects. Of course, I do not know what kind of 
instrument you have obtained, therefore I must 
speak somewhat generally, but with a microscope 
of high or fairly high power the foot of a fly is an 
astonishing object. Microscopes of high power will 
show insects upon insects —parasites upon big beetles, 
for example. 

If you have gone in only for, say, a combination 
of three lenses (as shown on the diagram), or are 
even reduced to a single lens of no great power, 
do not despair. Plants can still be studied, although 
not, of course, to the extent mentioned above, and 
a fly as it walks along a table is worth examining 
with a large lens. 







Miscellaneous Hobbies 207 

The eggs of inseets are well worth studying, and 
there is mueh to interest you when the inseet has 
reaehed the grub stage. The seales from the wings 
of moths and butterflies make good specimens. 
Need I mention the ant, the bee, and last but not 
least, the spider. 

I trust this brief outline will lead you to definite 
study of the mounting (which has many branches) 
and selecting of specimens. 

With microscopes of high or moderately high 
power, I strongly advise you to purchase some of 
those properly prepared microscopic slides which 
are sold by reputable firms, which, used to this 
work, can turn our better slides and give you a 
more interesting range of subjects than you could 
obtain in any way by yourself. Of course, if’you 
have been able to purchase a student’s microscope, 
quite a new world lies ready for you to examine. 
But I must act on the assumption that possibly 
two-thirds of my readers will not be able to expend 
any great sum on a hobby of this sort, and I must 
write my article accordingly. 

With a high-powered microscope the hydrae to 
be found in ponds or streams, clinging to water plants, 
can be studied. It is interesting to note that, as 
long ago as 1739, one Trembley, of Geneva, was 
able to study these little creatures, which proves 
that there were instruments of some power even 
in the days of Dick Turpin, of happy, or shall we say 
unhappy, memory. 

Even with a good, strong, magnifying glass 
there is a great charm in examining minute photo¬ 
graphs if they are quite sharp. I mention this 






2o 8 Hobbies 


because I am very fond of examining them myself, 
using four lenses taken from the eyepiece section 
of a telescope, which makes a microscope just suited 
in power to this work. The photograph must be 
placed so that a very strong beam of light shines 
upon it, then the lenses must be brought quite close 
to it. I should add that the photograph should be 
placed upside down, or the picture seen will be in¬ 
verted. I have some very tiny photographs of 
towns, taken perhaps fifty or more years ago, and 
it is curious to see the people—and particularly the 
children—in their old-fashioned dress. 

Speaking of minute photographs and microscopes, 
whole pages of newspapers were reduced by photo¬ 
graphy during the siege of Paris in 1870. To the 
naked eye these photographs looked like little squares 
of paper, grey with tiny dots. The scrolls were 
placed in the quill of one of a carrier pigeon’s feathers, 
and, when the bird arrived in the besieged city, the 
scroll was extracted and the printing (much enlarged) 
was thrown upon a screen by means of a microscope 
and the electric light. 

Hobbies should be collective as well as individual, 
if I may put it thus, and, as in the case of the tele¬ 
scope hobby, I suggest tliat you should try to form 
a little “ syndicate.” In America they form syndi¬ 
cates for every conceivable purpose, and, even if 
the funds at the disposal of your tiny “ corporation ” 
consist merely of the clubbed pocket money of, say, 
half a dozen boys, they will go farther than the 
amount that can be saved by one lad. It might 
be worth while to have a sixth share in the owner¬ 
ship of a good student’s microscope, and after the first 






Miscellaneous Hobbies 209 

outlay, the efforts of the “ syndicate ” could be 
devoted to buying slides, etc., for the instrument. 
Yes, the club idea is well worth considering. 

There are many good books and handbooks upon 
microscopic work which are suitable for the amateur. 
“ Half-hours with the Microscope,” by Dr. Ray 
Lankester, and “ Common Objects of the Micro¬ 
scope,” by the Rev. J. G. Wood, were both published at 
Is. before the war, but probably they cost a little 
more now. In taking up this, or for that matter 
any other hobby, you must be systematic; it is of 
little use to buy, or even to make, a microscope, 
use it for, say, a week, and then throw it aside. 
And it is not always the boy who spends most money 
on his instrument who does best in the end. If 
you have, first of all, just to fit up a makeshift, 
possibly you will get as much pleasure and instruc¬ 
tion out of it as your chum does from his much more 
expensive outfit. If you have taken up the subject 
in earnest, it is pretty certain that you will not long 
be contented with your makeshift, and will contrive 
to get a better instrument, for “ where there’s a 
will there’s a way.” 



Diagram 2 

























210 Hobbies 

As it is advisable that you should have some 
knowledge of the various lenses, I give a small diagram 
which will be of interest if you possess any kind of 
microscope. 

Everyone knows w^hat a common magnifying 
glass is like, but there are many other forms of 
lenses. The plano-convex lens, shown on the smaller 
diagram (a), is a very simple one, and b, a double 
convex lens, is, you will say, the common or garden 
order of magnifying glass. Speaking of this kind, 
I made a rather curious experiment some years ago. 
I obtained tw^o thin watch glasses and cemented 
them together, leaving two small openings on the 
edges exactly opposite each other. I then filled 
the space betw^een the glasses with w^ater, as well as 
I could, afterw^ards sealing the openings. This made 
a rather pow’^erful glass, but partly because I made 
and filled the lens very badly, and partly because the 
glass w^as poor stuff, I could do very little with it. 

It is not my intention to describe combinations 
of lenses, but, in order that you may form some idea 
of the startling difference in the apparent size of 
any object when view^ed through a lens of very 
moderate powder, I give tw^o pictures (in circles) 
showing a tiny sprig of a minute w^ed. The sprig 
in the large circle is magnified not more than three 
times. Imagine the effect produced by a telescope 
—^that made by Ramage, for example—which magni¬ 
fied 6,500 times. 

Reverting to the lenses a b c and d, shown on the 
small diagram, I should mention that c is a double 
concave and d a plano-convex lens, consisting of tw^o 
sections of different kinds of glass cemented together. 








THE TELESCOPE AS A HOBBY 


T30SSIBLY some of my readers will be surprised 
at the title of this article, for few lads make 
a hobby of the telescope. Yet a great deal of 
pleasure can be obtained with a good instrument, 
and if we take up stamp collecting until we go 
“ stamp mad ” and are ready to study anything 
connected with that hobby, why should we not 
take the telescope seriously ? At a very early 
period of my life I became the proud possessor of 
a “ spy-glass,” but I- think it was broken up in a 
wild attempt to make a camera. As a big lad I 
managed to buy a “ Dollond Night or Day,” and this 
excellent instrument I still possess. It is a rather 
powerful telescope, and, although somewhat heavy 
for carrying about, it has crossed the Channel with 
me more than once, and I should not like to say how 
many times it has “ knocked about ” at yacht 
races and up and down the Solent. 

Of course, the first thing to do is to obtain your 
telescope. You can buy one or make one.* I 
“ picked up ” my “ Dollond ” at a sale, quite cheaply, 
and it was in very fair condition—a dent here and 
there, nothing more. There is, as of course you 
know, a difference between a pair of binoculars and 
a telescope; then we have refracting and reflecting 
telescopes. Briefly a refracting telescope consists 

* “ How to Make a Telescope/’ in “ Something to Make/’ in 
Modern Boy’s Library. 


2II 



212 Hobbies 

of an object-glass (which is the lens nearest to the 
object viewed) an eyepiece, a tube to shut out all 
light except that which comes into the instrument 
through the object-glass, and a sliding arrangement 
by which the lenses may be adjusted. These are 
the essential parts. In reflecting telescopes the 
image is formed by a concave reflector, from which 
it is transmitted to a plane mirror and viewed through 
an eye-piece (see sketch). 

If you are buying a telescope, do not go in for 
one of those wonderful instruments sometimes 
advertised for, say, 3s. 6d. or 5s., and “ warranted ** 
to show a church clock at seven miles, flags at ten, 
and hills at, well, almost any distance. When 
writing to the makers, if you say exactly what 
you want, and the price you are prepared to pay, 
the firms will advise you. A great deal of enjoyment 
may be got out of a 3-draw tourist telescope—such 
instruments are obtainable for a moderate sum. 

A good second-hand telescope is not to be despised, 
if in good condition, but, if you know little or nothing 
about telescopes, get a friend who does to examine 
any instrument you think of buying. 

If you wish to study the heavens, you can do 
so—to a limited extent, of course—with any good 
telescope, fitted with a suitable eyepiece. 

Having selected your instrument you are free 
to pursue your hobby, and a very fascinating one 
you will find it. For example, it is astonishing to 
note what a number of thihgs you discover with a 
telescope, things which in the ordinary way pass 
unnoticed. Take your telescope to the top of a 
high hill near your home, some clear evening, and 






Miscellaneous Hobbies 213 

Spend an hour or so turning it in every direction. 
You will find things of the very existence of which 
you were unaware previously. I remember, some 
years ago, looking out over Southampton and its 
docks from the top of a house perched high up on 
the Woolston side of the Itchen. Miles beyond 
Southampton there was a big white house, which 
I could see quite distinctly, but, although I have 
since tried again and again to locate that house, 
I have never been able to do so. 



The Great Rosse Telescope 


If you have a taste for ships and the sea, you 
will find a telescope a very valuable instrument. 
It is pleasant, for example, to sit down under a 
shady tree on the banks of the Solent, during the 
height of the yachting season, and watch the racing 
yachts. In such a place there is always something 
to interest a lad, and the extended range of vision 
given by a telescope adds very much to one’s en¬ 
joyment. One sees the smoke of a big steamer 
out towards the entrance of Southampton Water, 
and instantly the faithful telescope is adjusted and 
pointed in that direction. Yes, it is the huge three- 








































214 Hobbies 

funnelled Majestic, the biggest ship in the world, 
bound for New York. On she comes, and, presently, 
with the aid of your glass, you see the passengers on 
her decks, and the officers on the bridge. 

Or, if you cross the Channel, think of the joy of 
turning your telescope upon the misty coastline 
which looms up ahead, after you have been perhaps 
two hours out of sight of land. Possibly this is your 
first glimpse of a foreign country, and as the details 
gradually “ come up,” just as they do when a photo¬ 
graphic plate is being developed, you almost fancy 
you are Columbus on the threshold of a new world. 

If you have made a hobby of the telescope, you 
will long to know all about the best instruments and 
the discoveries that have been made with them. 
I believe our old friend Robinson Crusoe called his 
telescope a “ prospective ” glass, and his was probably 
not a much improved instrument to that used by 
Galileo—which magnified, I believe, only three times. 
Yet with his poor little telescope Galileo was able to 
prove what had previously been doubted, namely 
that the moon was not a self-luminous orb, but a 
solid, earthy globe, more or less like our earth. 

To test the crude principle of the telescope take 
one of the eyepieces from any good opera-glass, 
and try it upon, say, a reading-glass. Hold the 
reading-glass in your left hand and the eyepiece 
in your right, then move the latter to and fro until 
the image formed by the reading-glass is brought 
up sharp and clear by the eyepiece. In the tele¬ 
scope, this is done by adjusting the tube containing 
the eyepiece. Even this crude arrangement will 
bring objects in front of the big magnifying glass 





Miscellaneous Hobbies 215 

quite near to you, but obviously tubes are needed 
to exelude any light whieh does not come through 
the object-glass. Nevertheless you have the rough 
idea of the telescope. Of the refinements and im¬ 
provements which have been made since men first 
fitted crude lenses to leaden tubes, one can say but 
little in a short article, but, if you are really “ bitten 
with the telescope hobby, you will want to look up 
such matters, just as the stamp collector gathers 
information concerning watermarks and errors. 

It will add to your enjoyment if you can persuade 
some of your chums to take up the telescope hobby. 
Between you you might buy several telescopes of 
various makes, or you might club together and buy 
a fairly large astronomical telescope. You could 
get a good telescope of this kind second hand, for 
a very reasonable sum. At any rate, if several 
friends form themselves into a little “ telescope club,” 
shall we say, better instruments can be bought than 
would otherwise be possible. 

The mystery of Mars deepens as time goes on, 
and always we are hearing a great deal about' the 
red planet. Even if you form a “ syndicate,” and 
buy a fairly powerful telescope, do not expect that 
you will be able to see the famous “ canals ” on 
Mars, or that you will be able to settle the much- 
debated question as to whether there is life on that 
far-off world. The moon is your “ happy hunting 
ground,” for even with my Dollond telescope the 
outstanding features on the moon’s surface can be 
seen with great clearness. Before the moon is 
quite full, turn your telescope upon the illuminated 
portion of its surface just where it merges into the 





2i 6 Hobbies 

dark part. Even with a telescope of very moderate 
power the jagged roughness of what are, undoubtedly, 
lunar peaks and mountain ranges can be plainly seen. 
Probably you will not be able to do much in the 
way of studying the planets, for even the nearest 
oh them revolves round the sun at such an immense 
distance from the earth that—as in the case of Mars 
—even the biggest telescopes give us but a poor 
idea of these worlds which are so mysterious. Yet 
in spite of the limitations which beset the amateur, 
I am sure you will turn your telescope towards the 
heavens, for the mystery of other worlds attracts 
one even during the “ shilling spy-glass ” period of 
one’s life. 

Many great men have made the telescope their 
hobby. As early as 1806, John Ramage, an Aber¬ 
deen merchant, began to construct reflectors, and at 
last built a fifty-four-foot telescope, which magnified 
6,500 times. Lord Rosse, too, made the telescope 
his hobby (probably you have heard of the huge 
reflector, of fifty feet focus, which he built at his 
seat. Birr Castle, Parsonstown). This great instrument 
weighed four tons, and when turned upon the moon 
it disclosed its mountains and valleys almost as 
clearly as they would appear to an airman flying 
very high above our satellite. It was said that had 
there been a building the size of one of our big 
London railway station, sit could have been seen 
with this instrument. 

You cannot ride your hobby so far as this, but, 
if you develop an interest in telescopes, you may 
go far. You will, of course, take your instrument 
to pieces frequently in order to clean it; all the 







Fig. 1.—The Figure 



Fig. 2.—The Landscape 



Fig. 3.—The Finished Picture 


PUTTING 


A FIGURE INTO 
NEGATIVE 


See 231. 


A LANDSCAPE 


Facing page 21ft. 










Fig. 1.—Print from Original Negative 



Fig. 2.—Print from Blocked-out Negative 



Fig. 3.—Showing Print with the New Background 

“DOCTORING” A DAMAGED NEGATIVE 


See page 231. 


Facing page 217 . 






Miscellaneous Hobbies 217 

lenses should be very carefully cleaned and polished. 
You will then note how the stopping down reduces 
the amount of available light. Those of you who 
go in for photography know that one of the draw¬ 
backs—in some respects it is a drawback—is that 
a lens must be stopped down to get a sharp image. 
You will be able to form a good idea of this by 
studying your telescope when you take it to pieces. 

Unless you manage to pick up a rather big tele¬ 
scope as a bargain, the question of a stand for your 
instrument will not arise. And if you do “ strike 
a bargain ” and become the proud possessor of a 
really fine telescope, probably the stand will be 
included for the price asked. It is possible to get 
sound and powerful instruments second hand, 
although, of course, the opinion of an expert should 
be taken before a lot of money is paid away. 

Possibly you will be interested to know the 
difference between an achromatic and a non-achrom- 
atic lens. The first-mentioned type is just a disc 
of glass, thick in the centre and thin at the edges 
(if convex), or thin in the centre and thick at the 
edges (if concave). You have noted, of course, how, 
when looking through some thick magnifying glass, 
one is apt to see “ all the colours of the rainbow,” 
but this is a fault which can be cured. It was Dollond 
who, about the year 1760, invented a lens which 
consisted of a combination of crown and flint glass 
sections, arranged so tliat the colour tints produced 
by one section were “ killed ” by the other; in 
this way the image shown was produced in its natural 
colours. Thus he introduced the non-achromatic 
lens, but, of course, his first crude attempt has been 






2 i 8 Hobbies 

improved upon in these days. We have now upon 
the market lenses as perfeet as it is possible to make 
them, combinations suitable for every purpose to 
which a lens can be put. In the advertisements we 
read that such and such a lens has been corrected for 
“ chromatic and spherical aberration and for astig¬ 
matism.” A good lens for a camera may cost ten 
guineas, and a great deal more in special cases. 
What the object-glass of a big astronomical telescope 
may cost, I leave you to guess. 

In a short article it is neither possible nor desir¬ 
able to introduce highly technical points. If I have 
started you upon a new hobby, probably you will 
wish to read up anything and everything connected 
with telescopes and telescope construction. Most 
free libraries contain many excellent books upon 
this subject, and upon astronomy. Dive into these 
as deeply or as lightly as you please, but before I 
close I must describe the diagrams. 

Sketch 1 shows a small astronomical telescope 
—small, of course, only when compared with the 
huge instruments used at observatories. 

Sketch 2 shows the simplest form of telescope ; 
the large len^ is the object-glass and the small one 
the eyepiece. This is, of course, the very simplest 
form of telescope, and a glance at sketch 3 will show 
you the construction of my Dollond to which I 
have referred in this article, o is the object-glass, 
and you will note the four lenses in the eyepiece 
section. IVhat I particularly wish to point out to 
you is the stopping down of the lenses at s s. 

The smaller sketch shows a reflecting telescope. 
R is the concave reflector, and the dotted lines and 







Sketches 1, 2 and 3 


the arrows show how the image is formed on this 
refleetor as the light enters the tube. A plane 
mirror (p m) is placed as shown, and the reflection 
in this mirror is viewed through the eyepiece (e). 
This is a simple type of reflecting telescope; but 
glance at the little sketch in the circle. There you 
have the upper part of the great Rosse reflector ; 
note the size of the man as compared with this 
huge instrument. 

As I strongly advised you to club together and 
buy a telescope of some power, it may be that you 
have obtained a second-hand astronomical instrument. 
With this the study of the moon will be interesting 
indeed. Galileo discovered the mountains and valleys 
on the moon’s surface, and, if you have a telescope 
of fairly high power, turn it upon our satellite after 
the new moon, when the shadows cast by the lunar 
mountains can be plainly seen. The “ crater moun¬ 
tains ” are like—well, those “ forts ” which children 




























220 Hobbies 

make on the sand, or perhaps a gigantic sand-hill 
with the middle scooped out would give a better 
idea of their formation. The dark patches on the 
moon’s surface can be seen with the naked eye, but 
with a telescope—even of moderate power—what were 
once called “ sets ” are objects of great interest, 
even to a casual observer. These dark patches are, 
of course, not seas but plains, and the enclosed or 
“ walled ” plains may possibly have been huge craters 
at some remote period. 

You should not miss an eclipse of the moon, 
which is a very interesting phenomenon. With 
regard to the study of the sun, however, it is as well 
to warn you that unless very special precautions 
are taken you may damage or even ruin your eye¬ 
sight. Smoked glass, of course, dulls the sun’s 
glare, but I am rather inclined to leave Old Sol 
alone, although the sun-spots are interesting. 

I have already mentioned that you must not 
expect to see details on the surface of the smaller 
planets. Jupiter, however, might be worth studying 
if your instrument is of good power. 

Comets are, naturally, objects of interest, when 
they appear, and at such times the members of 
your “ telescope syndicate ” will be much sought 
after. You should study these “ wanderers ” very 
closely. 

If you take up the telescope as a hobby, examine 
as many instruments as possible and note the principle 
upon which each is constructed. Probably some of 
your friends may have expensive telescopes, and they 
would, I am sure, allow you to test them thoroughly. 
If you can make friends with an expert who deals 






Miscellaneous Hobbies 221 

with every kind of glass so much the better. I 
once made friends with an expert on typewriters, 
and I learnt more from him in an hour than I had 
previously learnt in six or seven years. Five minutes 
conversation with an expert is worth pages of written 
instruction. I should particularly call your attention 
to that beautiful and expensive instrument the stereo¬ 
scopic binocular. You will hardly be able to purchase 
one of these, but if you have taken up this hobby 
you will naturally be interested in them. 

The use of “ night ” glasses at sea is also an 
interesting study. I remember being on board a 
fast steamer on Southampton Water, one very 
dark night, some years ago, just after several small 
boats had been sunk. The look-out man was worried, 
for the river was crowded and the skipper kept up 
full speed. I know these waters well, and tried the 
man’s glass to make out what was ahead. This 
glass was a good one, but, with the glare of the 
dock lights ahead, it was almost impossible to see 
what was right under our bow. 





MAKING A COAL-SCUTTLE 


Y OU can make a useful coal-scuttle from a box. 

A good size for the box will be 18 in. deep, 14 in. 
wide, and about a foot long. Take away the lid of 
the box and saw from a point 7 in. from the end to 
the'^corners on the corresponding sides of the box. 
The dotted lines shown in the sketeh indicate about 
where the saw-euts should come. In this way a slope 
of about sixty-nine degrees will be secured. Cut a 
lid for the box and affix this with two hinges. Rub 
all the wood down well with glass-paper so that it 
is thoroughly smooth. Attach a handle of bent wire 
to the top of the scuttle. For strength the ends of 
the wire might be carried right through the top of 
the scuttle, holes having been previously bored. A 
nob such as a small drawer-handle would do to lift 
up the lid. Paint the whole of the scuttle black, 
giving three coats. Rub down between two of the 
coats after the paint is dry. Then apply the final 
coat, finishing off with varnish. 



222 
















ABOUT SOME OF THE FISH—AND 
AN AQUARIUM 


S OME may say there is not mueh interest in 
an aquarium, and think that all one has to 
do is to buy one or two goldfish, put them in a glass 
globe of water and the job is done. They are sur¬ 
prised that after a short time the fish die, and the 
pleasure (?) of an aquarium is finished ! This is 
a great mistake as I hope to prove. 

An aquarium, like all other livestoek, needs 
daily care and attention. At the same time it 
provides a considerable amount of interest, and 
is the means of much knowledge being gained of 
the life habits of its inhabitants. 

The first thing to decide when making an aquarium 
our hobby is the shape it is to be. Large glass globes 
with rather narrow top openings ought not to be 
recommended, for one reason one is seldom able to 
see the fish, etc., in their proper shape, they appear 
unnatural. Another reason is that these globes do 
not allow enough air to the surface of the water. The 
square or oblong ones show up the inmates well, 
and in their natural form. If all the sides are of 
glass the two sides and the back should be shaded 
by a piece of green cloth or pieces of cardboard, as 
the fish and other livestock prefer this to having 
the light glaring in on all sides as well as the top. 
If you cannot afford one of these square aquariums 
a good aquarium can be made with a large earthen¬ 
ware pan, or a bucket or tub. Be sure that it is 

223 


224 


Hobbies 


thoroughly cleansed with boiling water, and then 
well rinsed with fresh water before beginning to 
stock it. 

Having obtained an aquarium it will be necessary 
to get enough river sand and small stones to cover 
the bottom, the proportion being three parts of sand 
to one part of small stones. This will form the bed 
of the aquarium, the depth being regulated according 
to the size of the aquarium, but never deeper than 
two or three inehes. Before placing this mixture 
in the aquarium, it should either be boiled or tho¬ 
roughly scalded in boiling water in order to kill 
any fungus or harmful matter. 

The next items needed are some plants or water 
weeds, for in addition to being ornamental and 
greatly adding to the beauty of the aquarium, they 
will be a very valuable help in keeping the water 
right for the following reason. The cause of many 
fish dying a short time after being put in an aquarium 
has been the want of oxygen gas. A continual 
fresh supply of this is needed if the fish are to keep 
healthy. During their respiration fish give off a 
quantity of carbonic-acid gas, which needs to be got 
rid of. It is therefore necessary to have oxygen 
supplied, and also something to consume the carbonic- 
acid gas. It was found that water weeds did just 
what was required, as they need and absorb the 
carbonic-acid gas, and give off oxygen. After 
placing some water weed in a glass vessel of clean 
water, you will, after a time, see little air bubbles 
continually coming from the leaves and passing 
through the water, these little air bubbles are 
composed of oxygen. 






Miscellaneous Hobbies 225 

One of the best plants for an aquarium is the 
Water-soldier. This has broad leaves with saw¬ 
like edges which bend over from the centre of the 
plant and remind one of some kinds of Cacti. It is 
found in ponds and prefers places where the water 
is quiet, without a current; for this reason it does 
well in an aquarium. The Anacharis, commonly 
called Water-thyme, which originally came from 
Canada, is very common in rivers and streams in 
all parts of the country, in fact it is too common, 
as if it were not cleared continually it would soon 
choke up many rivers and streams. It flourishes 
well in an aquarium and has a nice appearance. 
The Frog-bit (Ilydrocharis Morsus Ranee) is another 
useful plant, and is not difficult to find. Then there 
are the Vallisneria which are general favourites ; 
also the Water-starwort, the Water-violet, etc. 

After a time you will find that the inside of the 
glass of your aquarium is becoming covered with 
a green mucus, which grows thicker each day. This 
would, in time, prevent you from seeing any of the 
inmates, and must be got rid of. If you capture 
from some pond or stream, or buy, two or three water 
snails, they will act as your window-cleaners by 
consuming this growth. 





The Soldier Plant or Water-soldier 







226 


Hobbies 


There are the Fresh-water Whelk {Limncea 
stagnalis), the Trumpet Snail (Planorhis corneus), 
and the fresh-water winkles or snails (Paludina). 
These latter are viviparous, the young being hatched 
while the eggs remain with the female in the shell 

until they are able to find their own food and look 

after themselves. 

Now as to the best kinds of fish for our aquarium. 
The members of the Carp family are very pretty, 
both as to shape and colour, and do well. The well- 
known Goldfish is one of them, varying in colour 

from a pale lemon gold 
to deep orange gold, 
then to red. Some are 
nearly black, and some 
white, like silver; 
others have black 
markings which look 
very pretty, especially 
when evenly marked. 



Fan-tailed Goldfish 


There are others with 
extra large fins and tails, some with forked tails 
and some with fan-tails. There are also the Tele¬ 
scopic goldfish with very prominent eyes, and the 
goldfish with long drooping tails whieh look as 
if they were made of fine silk. The water for 
these latter, however, must be kept at an even 
warm temperature. Most of the others are exceed¬ 
ingly hardy, and even in winter time can stand very 
cold water. 

The Prussian carp looks well in an aquarium, 
and will live there a long time. Some even become 
very tame, and both these and the goldfish get to 





Miscellaneous Hobbies 227 

know their owner 
and will come to 
the top of the water 
and take a little 
worm from his fin¬ 
gers. To get them 
to do this you 
must always attend 
to them quietly, so that they do not get suddenly 
frightened. They will then begin to lose all fear of 
you, and finally come for their food. The common 
carp needs a larger aquarium than the Prussian 
carp, as he is much bigger. The common carp has 
barbels on the lips which the Prussian carp does 
not possess, and the fins and cheeks are a bright 
reddish orange colour. 

The Dace is also a pretty fish for the aquarium, 
having a nice shape, and being of a very fine, silvery 
colour. It is a lively fish and darts about very quickly. 

The Gudgeon is an interesting subject, and does 
all right in an aquarium ; it 
has barbels like whiskers on 
the lips. 

Roach look very pretty 
and bright, but they need 
a larger aquarium than the 
other fish mentioned. 

One of the prettiest 
British fishes is the Perch, 
but it will need to be a 
small one if it is to be kept 
in the aquarium with other 
fish, otherwise you will find 



Telescopic Fish 















228 


Hobbies 



The Miller’s Thumb 


he has eaten 
some of them. 
Minnows are 
good subjects 
for an aquari¬ 
um, but they 
must have the 
water kept ex¬ 


ceedingly fresh, as they prefer a running stream. 

The Tench is one of the most suitable fish for an 
aquarium, as it thrives in still water and does not 
need the same quantity of oxygen as many other 
kinds of fish. Of a greenish gold colour, it makes 
a nice contrast to other fish ; its scales are much 
smaller than those of the carp. 

The Miller’s Thumb is not a lively specimen. 
It prefers to remain at the bottom of the water, 
and is generally to be found under loose stones. 
Its peculiar shaped head and different mode of life 
makes it, however, an interesting subject. 

The lively looking little fish, known to most small 
boys as “ Tiddlers,” are really Sticklebacks, and 
remarkably interesting little fish they are too. The 
males especially are of a brilliant metallic colour, 
while their rhode of living is different from other 
fish. It is better, however, to keep them in an 
aquarium by themselves, as they are very pugnacious 
and can and will kill other fish their own size with 
the spear-like spines on their backs. 

There are four different species of sticklebacks, 
viz. the Three-spined, Four-spined, Ten-spined, and 
the Short-spined, the most common being the 
Three-spined. 






Miscellaneous Hobbies 


229 



Three-spined Stickleback 


An interesting and 
curious point about these 
little fish is that the male 
builds a little nest and 
watches first over the eggs 
and then over the young 
fish, or fry, in a very careful and serious manner, 
fiercely driving away anything that approaches the 
nest. The eggs of the stickleback are remarkably 
large, in fact they are at least twenty times as large 
as the eggs of the cod fish, and are, therefore, tasty 
morsels for oth-er fish, and the various inhabitants 
of a pond or stream. Consequently it is necessary 

to guard them 
well, or the race 
of sticklebacks 
would veryi soon 
become very rare. 
The nest is made 
of pieces of de¬ 
cayed water weeds and mud, and built at the 
bottom of the water. It has two or three round 
holes in the top of it. Nest building and rearing the 
young take place during the month of May. 

Water Newts may also be kept in an aquarium, 
but they look better if kept in one by themselves. 
They also need either some pieces of stone that 
protrude above 
the surface of 
the water or a 
piece of rustic 
cork w h i c h 

floats on it, as The Tench 













230 


Hobbies 



they like to 

come out of 

the water 

occasionally. 

Frogs and 

Toads should 

not be kept in 

•Hr., aquarium 

or you will soon find one morning that they have 

been drowned. They are interesting pets, and should 
be kept in a case, like a fern case with moss at the 
bottom, and a deep saucer of water. 

rhe diving-spider is an interesting subject which 

ooks as If It had a ball of quicksilver on its back. 

It IS, however, really fresh air, as these spiders 

require more air than they can obtain from the water. 

They are therefore provided with a kind of second 

skin covering the abdomen and the surrounding 
parts, and are ^ 

to be seen 

continually 

going to the 

surface of the 

water to get 

this little sack Smooth Newt 

refilled with fresh air. If you put some of thesei 
spiders into your aquarium you will find that ' 
unluckily for the spiders, the fi.sh will eat them 
Don’t feed your fish on bread crumbs or they 
will not last long. The best food is small earth-worms 
or blood-worms. These should be placed in wet ' 

t^tL" fish' " i 











ADVANCED PHOTOGRAPHY 


GET OFF THE BEATEN TRACK 

P hotography (with the first principles of 
which it is assumed in this book, every boy 
is familiar) owes its popularity as a hobby to the 
wonderful air of mystery which surrounds the after 
processes of development, etc. It seems so wonderful 
to place a plate in the camera, make an exposure, 
and after finding that nothing seems to have happened 
to it, to be able to bring up the latent image from 
apparently nowhere. Incidentally to the amateur 
who has been led to expect wonderful things, it is 
a great disappointment to find that nothing happens. 

Once the technical difficulties are overcome 
development ceases to be wonderful. One knows 
that correct exposure and development must 
produce a negative. There was always a delicious 
doubt in the novitiate stages as to whether this 
would happen. 

With expertness, the interest in the hobby is 
apt to wane. When this occurs, immediately try 
to get out of the rut. Take something new; 
something out of the ordinary ; specialize in some 
particular subject. 

Attempt the most difficult subjects—the more 
impossible the better. The one or two successes will 
give more satisfaction than countless snaps made in 
a good light. 


231 


232 Hobbies 


SNOW PHOTOGRAPHY AT NIGHT 

The above is a subject which will give most 
interesting pictures, and be different to the ordinary 
album print. 

As there is not sufficient light to record snow at 
night, one must take advantage of artificial illumina¬ 
tion, such as street lamps, or the lights on buildings. 
In large towns where arc lamps abound, very good 
pictures may be made by photographing a street 
covered with snow, and actually including the source 
of illumination in the picture. Backed plates are 
essential, and flare spots must be avoided by suitably 
shading the lens. With two arc lamps about fifty; 
yards away from the camera, I have made successful 
pictures, fully exposed, with an exposure of five 
minutes at F/8. 

With ordinary gas lamps, the exposure will run 
into fifteen minutes. Care must be taken to keep 
snow from falling or blowing on to the lens, and any 
moving lights near the camera must be noticed. 
When these come into range of the view, hold the 
hand close to the lens until they have passed, other¬ 
wise they will record themselves on the negative 
as black lines. 

Magnesium ribbon can be used for country scenes, 
in woods, etc. Three feet of ribbon are required for 
a well-exposed negative with a stop or aperture 
working at F/8. When working for close-up views. 
Such as trees covered with snow near the camera, 
it is advisable to cut the ribbon into two pieces, 
burning one behind the camera, and the other well 
to the side. This will avoid the flat lighting which 






» 

Facing page 232 . 


THE FINE ART OF PHOTOGRAPHY 







Facing page 233 , 


TRICKS WITH STRING sc,/.asc,,^. 












Miscellaneous Hobbies 233 

would result if the magnesium was all ignited behind 
the camera. A little observation will enable some 
very fine pictures to be taken, if one takes advantage 
of the strong shadows which will be cast by the 
burning wire. 

SEASHORE PICTURES 

One of the things which the inland photographer 
never seems to realize, is the additional light which 
is present on the beach. This is due to reflection 
from sand and sea, and admits of very much quicker 
exposures than he is used to giving. Unless the 
camera is one of the cheap ones which has an aper¬ 
ture of F/11, over exposure will fall to the lot of the 
unthinking. With large aperture lenses, one must 
do one of two things : either stop down, or drive 
the shutter at a higher speed. Open beach work 
such as breaking waves, sunsets over the sea, and 
distant shipping studies, call for the highest speed, 
or smallest stop of all. During the usual holiday 
months, between the hours of ten and five o’clock, 
an open beach view should have about second 
at F/ll. if the sun is fairly bright. Even with an 
obscured sun, instantaneous exposures up to 
are quite possible at F/8. On account of the actinic 
power of the light, use may be made of a pale yellow 
screen for shutter work, which would be quite im¬ 
possible inland. The better rendering of the sands, 
water, and blue sky which is obtained when a 
screen is in position, should be remembered. A 
good exposure meter will save its cost in plates 
at the seaside. Colour sensitive plates, backed for 
preference, should be used. 

p 










234 


Hobbies 


PRINTING IN A FIGURE FROM A 
SEPARATE NEGATIVE 

First select the landscape negative from which 
the finished picture will be made. Then decide 
upon the one containing the figure. Care must be 
taken to see that it is correctly lighted in relation 
to the landscape negative, and that the figure is 
of the right size for insertion. In most cases, the 
figure will have to be specially posed in the required 
lighting, and may be taken of the exact size required 
to fit the position which it has to occupy in the 
landscape. If this is not correct, the proportion 
will be wrong and the introduction’ apparent to 
everyone. 

The figure is carefully blocked out from the rest 
of the negative, by means of opaque water-colour. 
Fig. I is a print from a negative showing how the 
figure is isolated from its surroundings. A hole 
smaller than the white oval is cut out of a piece 
of black paper, and placed on the glass side of the 
negative so that only the figure can print through 
the hole, the rest being white unprinted sensitive 
paper. As the figure is still capable of being printed 
upon, it must be protected from light action by 
painting over with an opaque water-colour. This 
should be done under a reading glass, as a slip over 
the outline will cause a white mark to show. 

When the paint is quite dry, place the landscape 
negative Fig. 2 in the frame, adjust the paper so 
that the paint-protected figure comes in the correct 
position, then print to required depth in daylight. 
The paint is removed in the hypo solution when 







Miscellaneous Hobbies 


235 


fixing the print. Gelatino-chloride P.O.P. is not 
suitable for this method. The result will be seen 
in Fig. 3. 

INTENSIFYING NEGATIVES BY THE 
SULPHIDE FORMULA 

There are sueh a number of ehemieal compounds 
at present on the market for the intensification of 
negatives, that the beginner will be somewhat 
doubtful as to which he should use. Provided one tones 
bromide prints by the sulphide of sodium method, 
the matter is already decided, for the bleacher will 
act very well as a negative intensifier. This bleacher 
and blackening solution may be purchased ready 
prepared at almost any photographic chemist’s. It 
is sold for the purpose of toning prints on bromide 
paper to a very nice sepia tone. Intensification of 
a negative is obtained by a change in the colour of 
the image, rather than an actual increase in the 
density of the deposit. Like all other solutions, 
it is cheaper to prepare than to purchase ready¬ 
made. It will keep almost indefinitely in well- 
corked bottles. 

Bleaching solution is made of potassium ferri- 
cyanide, 80 grains ; potassium bromide, 160 grains ; 
hot water, 8 ounces. The negative is placed in this 
solution until it assumes an even buff tone, which 
stage is reached in about one minute. Wash after 
removal from this bath, for a few minutes, until 
the yellow solution has left the negative. Then, 
immerse in the blackening solution until the image 
will blacken no further. Usually takes about one 
minute. Wash for five minutes, and negative will 








236 Hobbies 

be found to give a much better print than it did 
previously. Negatives which might be described 
as “ flat ” rather than “ thin,” benefit most from this 
treatment. 

CLOUDS AND LANDSCAPE ON THE 
SAME PLATE 

At some time or other every photographer has 
seen a view in which the sky made the picture, and 
wished that it was possible for the camera to record 
sky and view on the same plate. 

The sky portion of the picture receives about ten 
times more light than the landscape. Working on 
this fact, it is easy to control more or less the quantity 
of light which reaches the plate from that portion 
representing the sky, by means of what is known as 
a graduated screen. With such a screen adjusted 
on the lens, it is quite easy to retain any clouds 
which may be present on the same negative as the 
landscape over which they float. 

A graduated screen is made by first fixing out 
two lantern plates, washing and drying. Then 
prepare a dye solution by dissolving one deep yellow 
Velox colour stamp in one ounce of water. A 
book of colour stamps may be obtained at almost 
any chemist’s. Take one of the fixed and dried 
lantern plates and immerse it in the dye solution 
until one inch of the film is covered. Leave for 
three minutes. Do the same to the second plate, 
allowing it to go half an inch farther into the dye 
than the first plate. Without washing, pick the 
plates out of the dye, taking care none of the dye 
runs over the clear portion of the film, and allow 









Miscellaneous Hobbies 237 

to dry. When dry, place the two dyed portions 
film to film, and bind up in the same way as when 
binding a lantern slide. The screen will now be 
almost half yellow and half clear. The yellow portion 
is used to keep back the clouds, whilst the clear 
portion allows the light to pass unobstructed to the 
plate from the landscape portion. 

The filter must be adjusted in front of the lens 
so that only the yellow portion covers the sky. 
Slight overlapping is permissible, but it must be slight. 
Some simple form of holder may be devised to keep 
the screen on the lens, but I find two strong elastic 
bands work quite well on my roller-blind shutter. 

PHOTOGRAPHY FOR COMPETITIONS 

From time to time, with the idea of obtaining 
good examples of work produced on their products, , 
manufacturers of photographic materials organize 
competitions in which very valuable money prizes 
are offered. These competitions are absolutely 
genuine, and the prizes are actually awarded to 
amateur photographers. Any amateur who can turn 
out clean, bright, technical negatives, stands a good 
chance of winning a prize, and a still better one if 
he can combine the pictorial with technical excellence. 
The use to which the prize giver will put the prints 
from the winning negatives, is for show-card purposes. 
He wants some negatives of striking and arresting 
subjects which will catch a photographer’s eye as 
he hurries past the dealer’s shop window. If you can 
supply such negatives, then by all means enter them 
for competition. 








238 Hobbies 

A careful study of the rules is advised, as every 
manufacturer alters them in some slight degree. 
Having found the class in which you think you may 
score, make an attempt to get a picture specially 
for that class. Do not depend upon one which you 
have already made. You can fall back upon that 
if you can’t get something better. When I am 
working for a competition, I usually find that the 
last exposure is better than all the previous ones. 
Take pains with the prints in the matter of mounting 
and spotting. Get them ready well ahead of time, 
so that the Avork Avill not be rushed at the last 
moment. Pack between stiff strawboards ; for 
nothing looks worse than a damaged mount or 
print. Attend to such matters as return postage 
(or wrappers if stated), closing date, etc. 

SELLING PRINTS TO THE PRESS 

The camera can be. made to recoup some of the 
heavy outlay necessary to practise the hobby, by 
the sale of prints to the Press. By “ Press,” one 
means daily newspapers, Aveekly illustrateds, weekly 
magazines, monthly illustrated magazines, and the 
sporting press. Nowadays, provided the subject is 
what an editor requires, it is no bar to publication 
because the photograph is the Avork of an amateur. 

But so many amateurs have the little knoAvledge 
of the subject Avhich makes it a dangerous thing. 
They do not pause to consider the needs of the 
journal, and submit unsuitable prints to one and all. 
This method results in a fine crop of rejected matter. 
All newspapers and most of the Aveekly illustrated 







Miscellaneous Hobbies 


239 


press, have a staff of expert photographers who 
“ cover ” any matter required by the paper. The 
amateur can rest assured that a photograph of any 
well-known event will be the work of a staff man. 
The editor is glad to use amateurs’ work of subjects 
which it would be too expensive for his staff men 
to cover. Thus, if a well-known race-horse died in 
your district, and 3^011 were enterprising enough to 
make a photograph of it and submitted it to the journal 
the same day as the horse diedy it would probably be 
used. But if you sent it up a day later, it would 
be old news. The editor would, in the meantime, 
have made use of a picture of the living horse, and 
no matter how good your photograph of the dead 
one, he would turn it down. With the daily Press, 
speed is everything. If you get a unique picture, 
let the editor know it is coming. Wire if necessary. 
Do not even trouble to develop. Pack it up in a 
box and send the plate by rail. The paper will 
develop it on arrival, and may sell the prints to a 
dozen other journals, each of whom would pay a re¬ 
production fee. Pack in a wooden box to avoid 
breakage. The editor will not take any more of 
your stuff if a negative for which he has saved space 
arrives broken. 

AN EASY METHOD OF BACKING PLATES 

There is no need to dilate upon the advantages 
of the backed plate. It is so great that a keen 
worker will pay good money to obtain plates ready 
backed. By making one’s own plate backing and 
applying it at home there is no reason why anyone 
should risk halation. 







240 Hobbies 

The backing is made of the following materials 
and proportions. Into an old tin or saucepan 
place one pound of common brown sugar and pour 
on sufficient water to just cover it. Place on a 
good red fire and boil until smoke begins to rise. 
Remove and pour in a tumbler of cold water. The 
mass will immediately splutter and set hard. 

Again place on the fire, and when liquid pour 
in one pound of burnt sienna. Then boil until 
mixture becomes as thick as treacle. When nearly 
cool, pour in half a pint of methylated spirit, stirring 
the whole time. Pour into a wide-mouthed pickle 
jar and tie down. 

There are several ways of applying the backing 
to the glass side of the plate, but the two best are 
with a small piece of sponge soaked with the backing, 
and a roller squeegee. 

The plate is placed film down on the page of an 
old magazine, and the packing applied by rubbing 
with the soaked sponge. A fresh page is used for 
each plate. A more satisfactory method is to pour 
out a small pool of the backing on to a spoiled nega¬ 
tive, roll the squeegee in it until evenly coated, then 
roll it on the plate which has been laid film down 
on the magazine page. This puts a thin even coating 
which will dry quickly. If dark slides are used, the 
plates may be inserted wet. This backing does not 
flake off and cause pinholes. Use plenty of red 
light to avoid getting the backing on the film, and 
roll the squeegee first up and then across the plate. 
There is no danger of slipping, and the hands do 
not become soiled by the squeegee method of 
application. 






Miscellaneous Hobbies 


241 


NOTES ON GARDEN PHOTOGRAPHY 

Any notes on this subject must be more or less 
general, as a garden contains so much that is photo- 
graphable. Some may like to photograph specimen 
plants, whilst others may amuse themselves by photo¬ 
graphing a plant in a series of exposures to illustrate 
from seed to fruit. Others find a garden photo¬ 
graphically interesting from the creepy things they 
can find in it. Pictures of these and the damage 
they cause are purchased for reproduction in garden 
papers. The pay is small, being only five shillings 
for each print. 

Each one to his taste, but when making prints 
for sale of garden subjects give me a small cottage 
garden to work in. Here one can find groupings 
of pinks, poppies, sweet peas, rosemary, and lavender, 
growing in pictorial disarray. Although common 
flowers growing in humble surroundings, they lend 
themselves admirably as a setting for a figure study; 
or even by themselves will produce a pretty photo¬ 
graph. 

In the small cottage garden the garden photo¬ 
grapher will find his subjects. The garden which 
is attended by a head gardener and underlings is 
too large for pretty work. 

This class of subject, on account of the multitude 
of various coloured flowers, should be photographed 
on either panchromatic plates or with ortho plates 
and a yellow screen, increasing the exposure some 
six times. Early morning and towards sunset will 
be found to be the best times, as advantage is gained 
from the long cast shadows, which usefully fill up 









242 Hobbies 

large uninteresting spaces such as lawns or gravel 
walks. 

Spring is not a good time for garden photographs, 
the beds being filled in most cases with forget-me- 
nots and wallflowers ; both of which photograph in 
a most disappointing mannp. 

In early spring, daffodils make many a piece of 
woodland garden very pretty. To record these or 
any other yellow flowers, an ortho plate is essential 
and a by six screen must be used. 

THE PHOTOGRAPHY OF SNOW 

Those who took my advice at the commence¬ 
ment of these somewhat rambling notes and are 
on the look out for difficult subjects should not pass 
the photography of snow on one side. It is the 
most difficult subject to render correctly next to 
that of sunlight. Like objects in strong sunshine, 
the photographer is dealing with a subject containing 
extremes of contrast. Snow is dead white, and the 
sky after a fall is very often blue. Unless care is 
exercised, blue and white will come out in a photo¬ 
graph with very little difference in the colour render¬ 
ing. It is on the correctness of this colour rendering 
that the whole success of snow photography stands 
or falls. Though snow may seem white to the eye, 
the amount of blue light which is reflected from it 
is unbelievable. This is more especially so on a day 
when the sun is shining brightly. Notice particu¬ 
larly the shadows the next time a fall of snow occurs. 
To your surprise you will find them quite blue. 

As snow is only worth picturing when the sun 







Miscellaneous Hobbies 243 

is casting these shadows, some pains should be made 
to ensure the correct rendering of these shadows, 
as well as the texture of the snow. Everywhere the 
snow is reflecting light on a sunny day, which means 
that exposures on unscreened plates must be brief. 
Orthochromatic plates are vital to success, and 
should be used in conjunction with a by six yellow 
screen. With such a screen and a rapid plate, it 
is possible to give a shutter exposure of second 
at F/8 providing the sun is not too near setting. 
In this case the exposure may run into one or two 
seconds. It is a class of subject which warrants the 
purchase of an exposure meter. Prints either on 
blue carbon or bromide toned blue are most effective 
for snow pictures. 

CANDLE-LIGHT EFFECTS BY DAYLIGHT 

A very pleasant way of spending a dull winter 
afternoon, and one in which the photographer with 
original ideas may score, is that of making candle¬ 
light pictures. The subject lends itself to striking 
pictures, provided the worker can think of suitable 
ideas. The first which would naturally come to 
one is that of burglars. The trembling spinster or 
old lady clutching a revolver whilst she peers 
affrighted into the flickering light cast by her candle I 

Naturally, the light of the candle is too weak 
for serious illumination, yet is strong enough to 
record the flame in a matter of seconds. The candle 
in the illustration entitled “ Burglars ! ” is from an 
untouched negative which received only two seconds’ 
exposure. 









244 Hobbies 

As the candle gives too weak an illumination, 
it must be supplemented by daylight. The photo¬ 
graph “ Burglars ! ” was made by placing the 
figure near a window, roughly posing, in order to 
get the focus, and then told to rest. The background 
was a dark cloth pinned against the wall. The window 
was then blocked up with two thick curtains until 
only a slit was left in the middle some three inches 
wide. This only allowed a thin beam of light to 
enter the room, the rest being in darkness. The 
figure was then told to regain her pose, the candle 
lighted, and at full aperture of F/6 on a plate speed 
H. and D. 200, received two seconds exposure. On 
no account force development, or the finer details 
in the high lights will be choked up. Develop for the 
high lights alone, and let the shadows look after 
themselves. If the lighting is properly managed, 
the picture will practically consist of high lights. 

The model chosen should have a steady hand. 
It is not so easy as it looks to hold a lighted candle 
for two seconds without making any movement of 
the flame. Should it do so, a double image is almost 
certain to appear in the result. 

STUNT LIGHTINGS BYf COMBINING 
MAGNESIUM WITH DAYLIGHT 

A variation of the above idea can be obtained 
by substituting magnesium ribbon or wire for the 
candle. The brighter illuminant enables some striking 
lightings to be obtained, but as magnesium by itself 
is apt to give rather harsh lightings, daylight can, 
with advantage, be combined with it. This enables 







Miscellaneous Hobbies 245 

the exposures to be cut down considerably. It is 
rather surprising that photographers have not done 
more with the combined magnesium and daylight 
lighting. At the Christmas party some good pictures 
will no doubt suggest themselves to the imaginative. 
The magnesium light can be controlled, and as it 
will burn in almost any receptacle is a very useful 
light to have at a party or amateur theatricals. 

For most subjects, the same arrangement of 
window curtains and background will be necessary. 
In the illustration “ Black Magic,” the magnesium 
ribbon used measured three inches, and was held 
in position in the bowl by being stuck into a piece 
of potato. The curtained window admitted the same 
shaft of light as when the candle picture was taken. 
As magnesium fumes very much, it is better to choose 
a pose where the model can keep the head away 
from the smoke. There is no need to keep the lens 
open during the whole time that the magnesium is 
burning. One second was the exposure for the accom¬ 
panying illustration, under the same conditions as 
the candle one. In this case the smoke which rose 
from the burning ribbon was an advantage, but it 
can be a nuisance. It will record if too much day¬ 
light is admitted. For this reason the slit between 
the curtains should never exceed three inches. 
Negatives should be kept thin in development, and 
as in candle-light pictures, the high lights are the 
things to judge the density by. Prints may be stained 
yellow or red after they are fixed and washed, when 
they become very effective and help to carry out 
the idea. Photo dyes of suitable colours are sold 
in tabloid form. 







Hobbies 


246 

HOW A BROKEN NEGATIVE WAS SAVED 

At some time or other a minor fraeture is sure 
to oeeur which, although small, is sufficient to ruin 
the negative. Sometimes it can be saved, as in 
the present instance. This negative had the top 
right hand corner broken off, as shown in Fig. 1. 

The first thing which was done was to block out 
the sky and a portion of the balcony, which altered 
the line of the architecture somewhat. A print from 
the negative in this condition is then taken on P.O.P. 
and will be as in Fig. 2. It should not be fixed or 
toned, for after the white sky portion is cut away, 
the remainder is allowed to blacken in the sun, and 
forms the mask which protects the already printed 
portion when inserting the new background. 

The print from the blocked-out negative has a 
white unprinted portion above the balcony, which 
is capable of taking the image of any suitable back¬ 
ground negative. As, however, the already printed 
balcony is still sensitive, it must be prevented from 
printing by means of a mask described above. Any 
irregularities of masking can be matched on the print 
when dry, with water-colour. 

Now take a print from the blocked-out negative, 
and adjust the background negative on the white 
unprinted portion, covering the already printed 
portion with the mask, which is lightly fastened to 
the glass side of the background negative with a touch 
of paste. Print in a shady place, as the sun gives 
too hard a line to the mask. The result of the union is 
seen in Fig. 3. The lighting of the background nega¬ 
tive should be similar to that of the subject negative. 







TRICKS WITH STRING 


I HAVE often wondered who was the first to in¬ 
vent string tricks. Probably it was some savage 
man who obtained his living by fishing and who 
whiled away his leisure moments by playing with 
the line upon which he depended for his means of 
subsistence. However that may be, tricks of all 
kinds have a strange attraction for old and young, 
and most boys have spent many an hour endeavouring 
to solve some puzzle which had been given to them, 
or to do some new trick which they had been shown. 

String tricks have always had a fascination for 
me, and I have during a course of years become 
acquainted with a considerable number. I there¬ 
fore propose to describe the manner of doing some 
of them, as I am sure they will prove of interest to 
my boy readers. The tricks are all very simple ; 
but, nevertheless, they look very effective when shown 
to others ; and when you have learned them I am 
sure you will find amusement for yourselves and be 
able to entertain your friends in working them out. 

A very good trick indeed is one known as “ slip 
cradle.” It is executed thus. Take a piece of string 
about four or five feet long, and tie the ends together 
so as to form an endless loop. Then take the string 
upon the thumbs and little fingers of both hands. 
Now pick up the string which crosses the palm of 
the left hand with the back of the first finger of 
the right hand; and pick up the string which 
crosses the palm of the right hand with the back 

247 


Hobbies 


248 

of the first finger of the left hand. Separate the 
two hands, and you have the “ cat’s cradle.” 

Next bring the tips of the fingers together, and 
see that the fingers are pointing towards the friend 
to whom you are showing the trick. You will now 
find that there is a string hanging over the backs 
of your thumbs. Tell your friend to take this string 
and pull it towards him. He will do so, and will 
be surprised to find that the string can be pulled 
right off your hands without your having to separate 
your fingers. 

The next trick is also very simple, but it is no 
less effective than the one just described. 

Place the string so that the loop is round the in¬ 
side of the first and middle fingers of the left hand, 
with the double string hanging dovm the back of the 
hand. Then bring the end up and slip it under the 
loop on the fingers, when the string will be hanging 
down the palm of the hand. Be sure to see that the 
double string which is between these two fingers 
passes underneath the string which binds the two 
fingers together. See also that the two strings which 
hang down between the fingers are not crossed. Now 
insert the left thumb between these two strings by 
putting it over the string which is closest to it and 
beneath the far string. Bring the tips of the first 
finger and thumb together, and, by lifting the loop 
of the middle finger, and by pulling the hanging 
down loop, the string will come off the hand. 

The next trick is known as “ cutting your head 
off.” To do this trick it is better to have the string 
somewhat longer, say six or seven feet. Tie the 
ends together to form an endless loop as before. 








•oc 


Facing page 24 ^^. 


TRICKS WITH STRING 











r 

s 




Fig. 17 


Facing page 2 ^ 9 . 


Fig. 18 

TRICKS WITH STRING 


Fig. 19 















Miscellaneous Hobbies 249 

Now hang the double string around your neck, 
pulling it tight by inserting one thumb of each hand 
in each of the loops that have been formed by the 
double ends of the string. Now hook the little 
finger of the right hand around one of the strings 
of the left thumb-loop, and hook the left little finger 
around one of the strings of the right thumb-loop, 
so as to pull open both of the loops. 

You will now find that by allowing the string 
to slip off the right thumb and the left little finger 
and separating the hands quickly, the string can 
be made to appear to pass right through the 
neck. It will then be hanging loose upon the 
hands. This trick should always, of course, be done 
very quickly, but the action of letting the string 
slip off the thumb and little finger is very easily 
mastered, and after one or two trials you should 
be able to do it so rapidly that not even the most 
observant of your friends could readily detect “ how 
it is done.” 

For the Sunset Cat’s Cradle—this is the title 
by which the next trick is known amongst the Apache 
Indians of North America—you will need a piece 
of string about seven or eight feet in length. Tie 
or splice the ends neatly together so as to form an 
endless loop. Take this loop upon the fingers and 
thumbs of both hands, that is, put the string be¬ 
hind the thumbs and across the palms to behind 
the little finger, so that the string hangs loosely 
down in front of you. 

With the back of the first finger of the right hand 
pick up the string which crosses the palm of the 
left hand, and with the back of the first finger of 

Q 





250 Hobbies 

the left hand pick up the string which crosses the 
palm of the right hand. 

Separate the hands, and the string will be shown 
as in Fig. 1. 

Bend the little fingers of each hand towards the 
body over all the fingers’ strings, and insert them 
underneath the inside strings of the thumb loops 
(Fig. 2). 

Bring the little fingers back to their original 
positions so that the thumb loops are lifted entirely 
off the thumbs and transferred to the little fingers. 
You now have Fig. 3. 

In the centre of this figure you will see a large 
triangle, the base of which is formed by two strings 
passing from one little finger to the other, and the 
sides of which are formed by double strings passing 
from the first fingers to the little fingers. With the 
backs of the thumbs pick up each of these double 
sides, as in Fig. 4, and bring the thumbs back to 
their original position, under the first-finger loops, 
which will give Fig. 5. Release the loops from the 
little fingers and extend to obtain Fig. 6. 

Bend the little fingers towards the body over 
both the first-finger strings, and with the backs of 
the little fingers pick up the double inside strings 
of the thumb loops, and bring the fingers back to 
their original position (Fig. 7). 

Exchange the first-finger loops by transferring 
the loop which is on the right first finger to the left 
first finger, and by placing the loop which is on the 
left first finger upon the right first finger ; thus one 
loop will pass through the other. 

Extend the hands, and you will obtain Fig. 8. 







Miscellaneous Hobbies 251 

You now have two loops on each thumb, one 
loop on each first finger, and two loops on each 
little finger. 

Now, with the backs of the middle fingers, pick 
up, through the first-finger loops, the double inside 
strings of the thumb loops, as in Fig. 9. Allow 
the thumb loops to slip off the thumbs and the first- 
finger loops to slip off the first fingers ; then transfer 
the middle finger loops to the thumbs to obtain 
Fig. 10. 

In the centre of the base of this figure will be 
seen a small triangle. Pick up the sides of this 
triangle with the backs of the first fingers (Fig. 11), 
and bring the first fingers back to their original 
position. The first fingers will now have loops upon 
them. 

With the backs of the middle fingers pick up 
through the first-finger loops the inside double strings 
of the thumb loops, which will give Fig. 12. 

Release the thumb and first-finger loops, and 
extend to obtain Fig. 13. 

The resemblance to the conventional represen¬ 
tation of a setting sun is very striking. 

The last trick is a little more complicated, but 
it is one of the prettiest tricks known to me. It 
is known as a “ hand-slip.” Whether or not it has 
any distinctive name of its own, I do not know. 
Probably it has ; for many of these tricks are world¬ 
wide and have been given names by which they 
may be distinguished. This particular trick I 
learned a good many years ago, whilst at school; 
but, strange to say, I have never met anyone else 
who could do it. 





252 Hobbies 

For this trick use the shorter of the two loops. 
Hang the string on the left hand, as shown in Fig. 14. 
See that the hanging-down loop is over the string 
which crosses the palm of the hand. Now, without 
twisting the strings, place the hanging-down loop 
behind the left thumb, as shown in Fig. 15. There 
are now two strings behind the left thumb—an upper 
and a lower. Bring both strings down to the front, 
or palmar side, of the hand, and twist the upper 
string around the left first finger from right to left, 
as shown in Fig. 16. Next put the lower thumb¬ 
string between the ring finger and little finger, being 
careful to see that this string comes underneath the 
upper first-finger string (that is, the string which 
you have just twisted around the first finger). Your 
hand should now appear as in Fig. 17. 

Take the two loops off the thumb, as in Fig. 18, 
and place them between the two middle fingers, as 
shown in Fig. 19, clipping them fast between these 
fingers. 

You will now find that by pulling the string 
which crosses the palm of the hand the string will 
come freely away. 

In working these tricks any kind of string can, 
of course, be used ; but silk cord, owing to its soft¬ 
ness, can be much more easily manipulated than 
ordinary string. 





YOUR DOG, YOUR CHUM 


HOW TO CHOOSE HIM 
AND HOW TO TREAT HIM 

W HAT boy, and certainly what British boy, 
has not longed to have a dog ? The dog, 
man’s faithful friend for countless generations, is 
a most lovable creature, and his affectionate ways, 
his appealing look, his loyalty to his master, his 
wonderful instinct and intelligence, his joy at accom¬ 
panying one on a walk, his protective powers, and 
his readiness to learn tricks, put him at the head 
of the brute creation. 

And does it very much matter what kind of a 
dog he is ? Not greatly. Each to his fancy. Some 
will like a big fellow such as the Great Dane or the 
Mastiff, others will go to the opposite extreme and 
cherish a King Charles’ Spaniel, a Pekinese, or a 
Toy Terrier, while the sleek coated Collie and the 
swift Greyhound have their champions. 

But in the main the handiest type of tyke is 
something in the nature of a Terrier, hardy, easily 
housed, fed and washed. Be he a mongrel or a chap 
with lordly pedigree he can be a real pal. The 
matter of his breeding is the difference between 
shillings and pounds, and naturally, one likes, if 
possible, to select the best—something good to look 
at, an aristocrat with “ points ” fit to win prizes 
at the local show. 

Anyhow, get your pet when he is a puppy of 
from four to six months old, and get an elder 

253 


254 Hobbies 

friend’s advice when you go to make your selection. 
Probably the most fancied of dogs in Great Britain 
are the smooth and rough-haired Fox Terriers, knock¬ 
abouts ready for any sport, game to a degree in wood 
or water. Of course, there are Scotch, Welsh and 
Irish terriers, each materially differing from the 
others ; while of larger types there are the Airedale, 
a grand animal when grown but a clumsy, floppy 
pup and likely to get you into trouble at home for, 
like all youngsters, he is destructive and has great 
strength of jaw and legs. The Bull Terrier is a rarer 
breed these days and so is the short-limbed, knowing 
little Sealyham. 

Now, let us suppose you decide upon a Fox 
Terrier. Whether he be smooth or wire-coated is 
purely a matter of taste. For my part I fancy the 
rough coated, who is the very essence of smartness 
when he is properly groomed. 

As a lover of animals, let me say at once, do not 
keep a dog unless you can do it properly. Do not 
have him in a small house where he may be kicked 
and cuffed by all who do not want him,'and regard 
him as a nuisance. Further, he must have a place 
to run and frolic in, and for that matter, to meet 
his chums. Even if there be a fight it is in congenial 
company. 

Never neglect your pet and be sure he has sound 
food, plenty of fresh water, and lots of gallops either 
with you or on his own account. It does not matter 
whether the dog be a mastiff or a Toy Terrier, his 
health demands ample exercise off the lead. 

On the other hand never take a short-legged or 
heavy-bodied dog for a long run behind your bicycle 







Miscellaneous Hobbies 255 

or any horse-drawn vehicle. Of course, to follow 
a motor-car would be impossible. 

Again, I must warn all dog keepers not to chain 
a dog up for hours at a time. To rob him of his 
freedom is to make him dangerous and ill. Excessive 
chaining up can be regarded as cruelty by an officer 
of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to 
Animals, and may lead to a police-court summons. 

Now, an all-important point is the private, 
particular home of your pal. If he is a house dog 
to live in, have a suitably sized box or basket for 
him in some out-of-the-way corner. The bed should 
be a stout mat, and this should be shaken every day 
and thoroughly cleaned and sun-dried from time to 
time. An animal living in the house at nights will 
have to be taught manners, but do not thrash him 
for early misdemeanours. To beat and bully is to 
bring up a permanently frightened, cowering creature. 
The training can be done by kindness, and, indeed, 
must be, if you want a chum. 

The better plan is to have a well-constructed 
kennel outdoors in some sheltered spot. The open¬ 
ing to the kennel should face south-west in winter 
and north-east in summer. Never place a kennel 
on the ground ; always raise it well away, half a 
dozen bricks being good supports. Do not forget 
to keep your dog’s home sweet and clean, otherwise 
his health and coat will suffer. If possible, choose a 
sunny day for the house cleaning so that the scrubbed 
wood may dry naturally. 

Food is a most essential point. Do not think 
that any old leavings from the kitchen table are 
sufficient. They are not. Bad food makes a bad 







256 Hobbies 

dog. Raw meat is desirable only in very small 
quantities. Cooked liver now and again, cooked 
vegetables, some large hard bones and plenty of 
dry biscuits may be recommended. Be sure not 
to over feed. A dog having a deal of exercise in 
the fields will require more nourishment than the 
house dog. A big bone is a great joy and of real 
health value, but do not give such small bones as 
those of rabbits and fowls, as the splintered portions 
are likely to cut the gums and may be easily swallowed 
to cause internal trouble. Plenty of fresh water 
must, absolutely must, be always within a dog’s 
reach. 

If you want your pet to look his best and be a 
credit to you, pay regular attention to his coat. 
Wash every bit of him except his eyes, give him a 
thorough good grooming, and be sure that his collar 
does not cut his flesh or rub his fur. 

Follow these simple rules, backed up by kindly 
and intelligent training, and you will have a real 
friend for many years. Do not forget that for any 
dog over six months old a licence, costing seven 
shillings and sixpence a year, must be obtained. 








RUNNING A MAGAZINE 


E diting and publishing a magazine, for your 
class or school or club, is great fun ; but there 
is a good deal of really hard work connected with it, 
and, unless you love writing and editing and manag- 
you had better think twice before you take on 
such a job. 

There are fellows, many of them, who are never 
happier than when they are writing articles or 
stories, and for them there is no finer hobby than 
turning out a magazine, regularly, month by month or 
quarter by quarter. It teaches them, too. Some 
of our most famous writers have begun by con¬ 
tributing to or editing a school magazine. 

If you really love the game you will probably make 
a success of it no matter what are your difficulties. 
In a certain Surrey school there was a Fourth former 
who brought out, at irregular intervals, a journal 
which he called “ The Waffler.” Only a single copy 
appeared each time, and he wrote it all out by hand 
and illustrated it himself. His chums paid him a 
halfpenny per issue to have it for two days each, and 
a great success it was. It was really funny. He 
stopped it when his subscribers got to be so many that 
his single copy was torn to tatters before they had all 
seen it. Then the school authorities thought they 
would publish a proper magazine—a printed one— 
each term. It is very good; but the old sub¬ 
scribers to “ The Waffler ” still sigh for its merry 
and bright pages. The printed magazine does not 

257 


258 Hobbies 

give them nearly so many laughs, and it is far 
more expensive. 

Now, that gives you some hints if you are thinking 
of starting a magazine. Give your readers what they 
want, and you are sure to make a success of it. Also 
you must charge the very smallest subscription you 
can manage. 

The very simplest magazine is like the one just 
mentioned. Usually it is all written by one boy, and 
there is only one copy. The next sort is that which is 
turned out on a “ hektograph ” or other duplicating 
apparatus. There may be anything from ten to a 
hundred copies of such a publication for sale of each 
issue. After that comes the printed magazine. Some 
boys have their own printing machine and type ; 
but usually printed magazines are printed by pro¬ 
fessionals. If you think of printing your own 
magazine you ought to buy a small book on 
printing. 

But you cannot duplicate or print your magazine 
until you have your “ copy ” ready. “ Copy ” is the 
name given to the manuscript or typescript that is 
turned in by the editor or his contributors. What 
you want to make up your mind about, at the start, 
is what kind of “ stuff ” you are going to publish. 

If you are starting a class or club magazine your 
task will be fairly simple. You will have to have a 
certain amount of news and comments on the month’s 
doings. Remember that most fellows like to see their 
names in print, and that the more names you can get 
into each issue the more popular your efforts will be. 
Fun you must have, and here you will have to be 
careful. Be witty—but don’t be rude. About some 









Miscellaneous Hobbies 259 

of your chums and friends you can say what you like. 
Others will punch your head if you refer to the colour 
of their hair or the fact that they are “ pin-toed.” 
It is undignified for an editor to have his head punched, 
besides being painful. Be careful! If you are in 
doubt, it is just as well to show a fellow what you 
propose to say about him before you publish it. 

Articles about games and training and things like 
that always go down well, if they are written by some¬ 
one who knows what he is talking about. A school 
magazine can often get some excellent stuff of this 
sort from the masters or team captains. Criticisms 
of games are often useful in helping the teams to win. 
Tompkins will think a good deal if he sees something 
like the following : “ Tompkins played an excellent 
game against West House ; but he should remember 
■ that there are others in the team. Passing is as much 
part of the game as shooting.” Similarly Judson 
may be waked up by a gentle jest of this sort : 
“ Judson should have held that catch. What were 
you doing, Juddy ? Thinking about your tea, or 
trying to make ‘ silly point ’ sillier than its name ? ” 
A magazine, properly run, exercises a tremendous 
influence in school or club life. 

Most youthful editors find a great difficulty in 
getting others to send in stuff for publieation. Of 
course everything is “ free, gratis, and for nothing,” 
so that the only reward a fellow gets is seeing his 
stuff in print, and hearing the others telling him what 
a silly ass he is to have written it. Make up your mind, 
however, from the start, if you do get copy sent you, 
never to put anything in just to “ fill space, or to save 
yourself trouble.” Always have enough good things 







26 o 


Hobbies 


by you to fill your magazine from cover to cover, 
even if you have to write every single word of 
it yourself. 

You will find that quite a number of fellows will 
think that they have a heaven-sent mission to write 
poetry. Don’t encourage them. Unless verse is 
really smart nobody wants it. Be very shy of 
“ serious ” verse. Funny stuff that is really funny 
always goes down well. If any of your readers want 
serious poetry they can find heaps and heaps of it 
in the library, and it won’t occupy any of your 
precious space and make most of your readers curl up 
and die—or come and demand their money back, 
which is worse. 

Fiction, too, you had better fight shy of, unless you 
are clever at it yourself, or have someone on your 
“ staff ” who can sling a good yarn. In class or 
school or club magazines there are, usually, not 
sufficient pages to contain a good story as well as all 
the other stuff that must go in. You can seldom get 
a good yarn under about 2,500 words ; 4,000 words 
is nearer the mark. It is not much use publishing 
a serial unless you can give at least 3,500 words of 
it in each issue. 

News, and a good deal of fun, with short articles 
on any subjects that will interest your readers, should 
be your mainstay. Keep everything as short as 
possible. In a small magazine a look of good value is 
given if it is “ well broken up ” and contains lots of 
different headings. Remember that solid pages have 
a “ dead ” look and will put your readers off. The 
bigger your pages are the more careful you must be not 
to let them have a solid look. A glance at any well- 







Miscellaneous Hobbies 261 

edited magazine or journal—like Chums for instance— 
will show you what this means. 

With regard to illustrations. Whether you have 
illustrations or not will depend on circumstances. In 
the first place, if you cannot draw yourself you will 
require the constant and willing services of an artist, 
if you decide to use pictures. If you are hektograph- 
ing or duplicating your magazine you will have to have 
the pictures drawn on the proper paper and with the 
proper ink. Make your artist keep his drawings as 
simple as possible. Too much detail will clog up on 
the duplicating apparatus very quickly. The same 
advice applies with almost as much force if you are 
having your magazine printed. In that case you 
will have to have engravings or “ blocks ” made of the 
drawings so that they can be printed. It saves 
trouble to let your printer have these made for you, 
if he is a professional. The process of making these 
blocks is very interesting, but we have no space to 
describe it here. In any case, it is outside a youngster’s 
powers to make the “ blocks ” for himself. If your 
magazine is printed, you can illustrate with photos if 
you like. These have to be engraved in just the same 
way as line drawings. 

By the way, there was once a school magazine that 
w^as turned out in a very ingenious manner. Each 
page was typewritten, with the necessary drawings 
made on the sheets. Then the pages were photo¬ 
graphed by the school photographic society and 
printed out just like ordinary photographs. The 
magazine looked very nice, but it was printed on one 
side of the paper only, and the paper was thick, so 
that it was rather bulky when it was bound up. It is 





262 Hobbies 

worth thinking about, though, as a good means of 
printing any number of copies up to, say, fifty, if your 
subscribers will stand the expense. 

So much for general hints as to the kind of things 
you should aim at having in your magazine. Now 
for some practical hints about the actual details 
of editorial work, apart from choosing material. 

If you are hektographing or duplicating your 
journal you can go your own sweet way; but, even 
then there are some rules you must follow if you would 
have it look nice and readable. You should, for 
instance, never start a fresh article in the bottom half 
of a page, unless it will finish on that page. Again 
you must be careful that only a few of your articles 
start on left-hand pages. If anything, articles, etc., 
starting on right-hand pages should be in the majority. 
This is particularly necessary when the magazine is 
small. 

If you are having your magazine printed you will 
probably find that the number of pages you can have 
will be some multiple of eight. That is to say, you can 
have eight, sixteen or twenty-four pages or upwards. 
Most likely, if you wish, you will be able to make up 
with a four and an eight, so that you can have 
twelve or twenty pages, or so on. The printer will 
tell you what you can do without making the job 
expensive. One thing you cannot do without adding 
greatly to the expense is to put on an extra two pages. 

When you send your copy to the printer it will come 
back to you, set up, in the form of galley proofs. 
These are long strips of paper containing a single 
column of type. When you have galley proofs of all 
the material you propose to use in the number or 





Miscellaneous Hobbies 263 

issue of your journal you are preparing, you will 
proceed to “ make up.” Most editors have their 
own ideas on the subject of making up the paper ; 
but you will probably find that the best plan is to 
procure some sheets of paper marked with the exact 
size of the pages of your magazine. Page these off 
with numbers to represent the pages of the magazine 
and remember that odd numbers are always right- 
hand pages. Now paste each article down in the 
position you wish it to appear in the magazine when 
it is printed. You must write in your titles, sub¬ 
titles and author’s name at the head of the article, 
showing about how much space you want them to 
occupy. You must also write in any cross-headings 
and leave space for them. 

If you have estimated the length of each article 
carefully before you send it to the printer, you will 
have very little cutting to do. Let your articles be 
short rather than long. If you have five or six lines 
too little to fill a page you can always write a short 
paragraph to fill up, whereas if you have five or six 
lines too many you will have to pay the printer both 
for setting them up and for taking them out again. 

Make all the necessary corrections on the proofs 
as you paste them on to the make-up pages and send 
the make-up to the printer complete in every detail. 
The printer will send you page proofs after he has had 
your make-up. These should require very little done 
to them if you have made up carefully. Read through 
them to see that all is correct, pin them together, and 
initial them in the corner with the words “ Passed for 
press ” and the date. You have nothing now to do, 
when you have sent your passed proofs to the printer, 






264 Hobbies 

but wait until he delivers you your bundle of nice 
clean copies. 

By the way, don’t forget that printers use special 
signs in correcting proofs. You will find these signs 
in any encyclopaedia, and in such publications as 
Whitaker’s Almanack. If you are in any doubt wTite 
what you want done on the side of the proofs—and 
write clearly. 

If you are running a magazine just for your school, 
class or club you will probably not have much 
difficulty in getting subscribers, particularly if your 
first number is bright and good. It is a good plan 
to get fellows to put down the money for a year’s 
numbers all at once, then you know where you are 
and about how many copies you will need. If it is a 
school magazine you are running, one of the masters 
will probably look after this side of the business. 

A school magazine is generally run by an “ editorial 
committee ” of the senior boys. In this case, if you 
have anything to say in the matter, try to have the 
committee as small as possible. Three fellows who 
are really keen and who are chums will do better 
work than six, two or three of whom don’t much 
care if the paper comes out or if it doesn’t. 

About advertisements. If you are lucky enough 
to be able to get local tradespeople to advertise in 
your magazine, you will be able to give more value than 
if you had to depend only on subscriptions to pay 
the printer’s bill. If you have a cover—a cover of 
thicker, coloured paper—you will have the two 
back pages and the inside front page to let for 
advertisements. You will not be able to charge much 
for your space, of course. 





POULTRY FOR BEGINNERS 


B oth in a villa garden and in the eountry poultry 
can be made very profitable by the boy fancier. 
The chief source of profit is, of course, the eggs laid by 
the birds, but it should also be remembered that many 
a good dinner may be reared. 

Quite one of the latest methods of keeping hens is 
to shut them up in a closed-in house. This plan is 
called the “ intensive ” system, and one may keep 
many birds in quite a small house. From the hens’ 
point of view it is almost a drawing-room existence, 
and it has proved itself to be exceedingly successful. 

Later in this chapter a design is given for a suitable 
intensive house, as well as for other houses with out¬ 
door runs, but there are separate types of birds for 
the different systems, and it will be well if we look 
at some of the breeds that are available. 

Broadly, we can divide hens into two main classes— 
the heavy and the light. In the former class we have 
the Orpingtons (white, black, spangled and buff), 
Rhode Island Reds, Brahmas (very large), Plymouth 
Rocks, Wyandottes and Sussex. All the birds of this 
type require an open-air run and as much space as 
possible. 

Boy fanciers making a beginning with poultry 
would be well advised to go in for Anconas. They 
are pretty little birds, with black and white plumage 
and yellow legs. Splendid layers, their eggs are large 
in size and white. 

When poultry keeping in an intensive house the 

R 265 


266 


Hobbies 


floor should be covered to a depth of six inches with 
litter. This stuff may be composed of chopped straw, 
cedar wood litter, peat moss litter, dry leaves, sifted 
bonfire and household ashes, road sweepings if they 
are gritty, etc. The great point is not to have the 
litter too heavy, for you will want the birds to be 
seratehing in it all day long. 

Most fanciers place in their intensive houses a 
fresh supply of litter in September, allowing it to 
remain until Mareh, when it can be dug into the 
garden as an exceedingly rich fertilizer. This litter 
never smells because it is always dust dry. When 
it is taken out in the spring and used in the garden 
fresh litter must be supplied, unless the birds are 
going to spend the summer out of doors. 

The chief objeet of the intensive system is to 
eneourage the production of eggs in winter time by 
keeping the birds always warm and dry. Their 
grain food is buried in the litter and they obtain 
sufficient exereise by scratching to find it. Another 
plan is to hang a cabbage from the ceiling by a 
string just above the heads of the birds so that they 
have to jump to peck it. 

Apart from this, feeding poultry on the intensive 
system is much the same as feeding them under other 
conditions. As with most domestic creatures, change 
of diet is always welcomed. 

According to the season of the year there are 
available for the feeding of poultry grain and meal of 
various kinds such as one buys at the comshop. In 
addition, there is the vitally important green food for 
birds that are not kept on a grass run, in addition to 
all sorts of garden and household waste, 








Miscellaneous Hobbies 267 

As a matter of fact, the few fowls likely to be kept 
by a boy or girl fancier can be largely fed upon house 
and garden scraps. Let us see what there will be 
available. In the first place, there are potato peelings 
and very small potatoes not fit for cooking ; there are 
the parings from other vegetables as well as those from 
fruit; there are crusts of toast and bread ; the scrap¬ 
ings of piedishes ; the scraps left on the plate after a 
meal; and the little meaty tit-bits that remain over 
after cooking. Instead of these things being thrown 
into the ash bin they may be turned to good account 
when one keeps a few hens. 

By far the best plan is to set aside an old saucepan 
in which these odds and ends may be collected. 
Then, at the end of the day, the saucepan may 
be placed on ^ the kitchen range and allowed to 
simmer, care being taken that sufficient water is first 
provided. 

In the morning the contents of the saucepan 
should again be heated and then mixed with a little 
barley meal or sharps, to which double the quantity 
of bran or clover meal has been added. The whole 
may then be stirred and served hot in an earthenware 
dish, the mash being not too sloppy. 

Such a breakfast as this is the finest food of all for 
laying hens, except during the few hot months of the 
year, when it may be dispensed with. In very cold 
weather, too, it is sometimes a good plan for a change 
to give the birds their hot meal last thing in the after¬ 
noon. As for meat scraps and the gravy produced 
from simmering bones (other than bacon bones) these 
are most beneficial; in fact, without a little meat 
in some form or other laying hens can hardly be 







268 Hobbies 

expected to do their duty in the winter, and some 
fanciers buy scraps of waste meat from the butcher 
once a week for the purpose. 

So much for the morning meal, which should be 
given regularly at a fixed time, the earlier the better. 
Much the same rules may be followed with birds kept 
intensively and those in the open. 

For the midday meal, to be given about half-past 
twelve, there is nothing better than green food. 
According to season, the outside leaves of cabbages 
or lettuce, dandelions and other green weeds, lawn 
clippings and vegetable scraps from the house may 
be given. 

The afternoon meal should consist of grain ; ex¬ 
cept on those occasions when, for a change, the mash 
is provided. There are many varieties of grain food, 
wheat, oats, barley, maize and mixed poultry com 
being the most common. 

Wheat, oats and barley are all good and may be fed 
at different periods for variation. Maize is very 
heating, quite good in extremely cold weather or for a 
hen that is sitting, but not advisable as a general 
rule in any quantity for laying birds. Mixed corn 
makes a pleasant change now and again ; but it 
should only be bought from a reliable tradesman, for 
often mere rubbish is mingled with it. 

It will thus be seen that the birds require to be fed 
three times a day. On the question of water the 
greatest care is necessary. In the depth of winter it 
is an excellent plan to give the birds water from 
which the chill has been taken ; and they must never 
be allowed to drink from a vessel partially frozen 
over. In the summer, the great point is to ensure a 








26g 
































































































































































































270 Hobbies 

supply of clean, pure drinking water twice a day and 
to keep it out of the surCs rays. 

As to how much food to give the birds, no definite 
rule of quantity can be laid down ; but it is usual for 
more food to be given than is necessary by the ama¬ 
teur, so that the bird only suffers from kindness. 
Fowls require just as much food as they will greedily 
devour at a meal and no more. When food is lying 
about uncared-for a quarter of an hour after feeding 
time one is giving too much. 

Bantams are splendid little fellows and can be 
made most profitable. They require to be fed on 
much the same lines as hens and are housed in the 
same way. The greatest profit is to be made by 
raising exhibition birds, and showing them; but 
bantams lay quite well, a small egg that is very 
acceptable nevertheless. And as mother birds the 
little hens are quite reliable. 

There are a great many varieties of the bantam, 
among them the black and white Rosecombs ; the 
Sebrights ; Game, and Pekins. To see them in all 
their glory, however, one should visit a poultry show 
and make the acquaintance of the several breeds at 
close quarters. 

Ducks are exceedingly popular. A few may 
be kept in a run in a comparatively small garden, 
but these birds do best on an open grass range. It 
is not neeessary, however, that they should have 
aeeess to a pond or stream, and they thrive quite well 
without having the chance of a swim. 

The most profitable variety of duck is the Indian 
Runner. It produces more eggs than any other 
domesticated bird ; sometimes more than 200 in a 








Miscellaneous Hobbies 


271 


year. The best plan is to buy a setting of duek’s eggs 
at the end of March and arrange to borrow or buy 
a broody hen to hatch them. It takes four weeks 
for the eggs to hatch after the hen begins to set. 

Runner ducks are white, buff or coloured, and they 
may be usually known by their erect carriage, rather 
like that of a penguin at first glance. Aylesbury ducks 
are much larger birds ; preferable to runners for table 
but not such good layers. 

Geese should only be kept where they may be 
given on open run over field or common. In these 
circumstances they need but little feeding until the 
time comes to fatten them. The Emden and the 
Toulouse are the two best varieties. 

Turkeys also require a good deal of space in which 
to roam; but, in the opinion of some fanciers, they 
are more interesting than geese. The American 
mammoth-bronze is the largest variety, but the White 
Austrian is a very showy bird. Turkeys are fed in 
much the same way as fowls, except that when young 
they require a great deal more green food. They 
succeed best on light, gravel soil and do not prosper 
on ground composed of clay. 

Pigeons make very pretty pets; and, by selling 
the young birds, quite a handsome profit may be 
made by keeping them. 

Very broadly, pigeons may be divided into two 
classes—those that fly long or short distances in com¬ 
petition with other pigeons, the racers among these 
birds, and those that stay about their home as pets. 

From the point of view of boys and girls, the 
greater interest will probably arise from the keeping 
of carrier and homer pigeons. These birds, when they 








272 


Hobbies 


have become thoroughly accustomed to their home, 
may be taken some distance away with the knowledge 
that they will return to their own loft. 

The plan is, of course, to release them very care¬ 
fully at first. Then gradually, as they become more 
used to their surroundings, they may have greater 
freedom and be taken farther away. The best way 
when starting to give a bird its liberty is to do so 
before feeding and to have a good meal on its return. 

Other types of pigeons merge into the fancy classes, 
such as fantails, jacobins, and many others. In most 
districts there are fanciers’ clubs that may be joined 
for small fees, and there is no better way of getting 
to know the points of birds, seeing that each society 
holds a show periodically. 

Pigeons are not, generally speaking, difficult to 
feed. A common plan is to have a receptable known 
as a “ hopper,” which one fills with a suitable mixture 
of peas and grain sold ready prepared by the cornman. 
As the birds eat the food from tlie exit to this hopper, 
the grains fall and refill this saucer until the whole 
thing is empty. 

A better plan, though, is to feed at regular inter¬ 
vals twice a day, morning and evening ; or late after¬ 
noon in the winter. Give the birds as much as they 
will eat at the meal and never allow food to lie about 
that it may get soiled and stale ; or, worse still, serve 
to encourage rats. 

Fresh w'ater for drinking is very important for 
pigeons, and, in addition, in all but the most bitter 
weather they will want clean water in a roomy 
earthenware or zinc pail or dish for the purpose of 
indulging in a morning bath. 







HOW TO RUN A CLUB 


TT does not matter what sort of a elub it is, 
whether it is a football elub, a erieket elub, 
a stamp soeiety, or a elass or form assoeiation at 
sehool, if it is to be a sueeess it must be run on 
proper businesslike lines. 

When you are forming your elub the first thing 
is to “ eonvene a meeting ” of all those who are 
likely to be interested in the objeets you have in 
view. Usually several of you will have talked the 
matter over amongst yourselves, and know what 
it is you want to do. The best thing is to write 
out as many invitations as you think neeessary, 
and send them round. The best form of invitation 
and “ notiee eonvening the meeting ” is as follows : 

“ A meeting to diseuss the formation of a Dud- 
dington Junior Football Club—or whatever the elub 

is—will be held in the Village Hall on . 

at .... p.m. sharp. The presenee of all interested 
persons is requested.” 

This should be signed by one of your number 
as “ Honorary Seeretary ” pro tern., or by several 
of those who have deeided to form the elub. (Pro 
tern, is shortened Latin, and means “ for the time.”) 
Several copies should be written out on big sheets 
of paper, and stuck up in places where they can be 
seen. You will generally find that there are some 
local tradesmen who will be glad to help by displaying 
the notices in their shop windows. Of course, if you 
wish to confine membership of the club to your 

273 



274 Hobbies 

own particular friends you will not display public 
notices, but will send the invitations to them alone. 

Be businesslike from the very first. Make out 
an “ Agenda,” which is a list of business to be con¬ 
ducted at this first meeting. The Agenda should 
end with the paragraph “ Any other business,” to 
allow for bringing up anything that you have not 
thought of or allowed for. 

Be punctual ! Directly the hour for which the 
meeting is called has struck someone should get 
up and propose that So-and-So take the chair. 
This should be seconded and then put to the meeting 
by the proposer, who should say : “It has been 
proposed and seconded that Mr. So-and-So be the 
chairman of this meeting. All in favour please put 
up their hands. On the contrary. Carried.” Or 
“ carried unanimously ” if no one disagrees. “ Mr. 
So-and-So, it is the wish of the meeting that you 
should act as chairman, and I have pleasure in 
calling on you to take the chair.” 

The chairman is now in charge of the meeting, 
and his rulings must be obeyed if the meeting is 
to be orderly and not waste time. For chairman 
you need a fellow with some strength of character 
who will not stand any nonsense. The chairman 
does not vote on anything unless there is a tie, 
when he has a “ casting vote,” which gives victory 
to one side or the other. A strong chairman can 
often lead the meeting, though, on debatable points, 
particularly if he knows the ropes and what should 
be done. 

The chairman’s first duty after briefly thanking 
the meeting for electing him to the honour of the 






Miscellaneous Hobbies 275 

chair, is to call on the honorary secretary, pro tern, 
to read the notiee convening the meeting. This 
puts everything in order, and constitutes the meeting 
as a legal one for the purpose for which it was called. 

Next the chairman, who has a copy of the agenda, 
calls on Mr. Somebody to move a resolution calling 
for the formation of the club. This should be 
something on these lines : 

“ Mr. Chairman, I have pleasure in moving 
that a club be formed to be known as the Duddington 
Junior Football Club, and that the objects of the 
said club shall be to encourage and provide facilities 
for the playing of the game of football amongst boys 
and young men residing in Duddington and within 
five miles thereof who are under the age of twenty- 
one years.” 

This kills two birds with one stone and saves time. 
Wording it like that you have the proposition, the 
name and the objects of the club all in one resolution. 

Immediately the proposer has sat down another 
fellow rises and says : 

“ Mr. Chairman, I beg to second that motion.” 

The chairman then gets up and says his little 
say, which is in time-honoured form. 

“ It has been proposed by Mr. So-and-So and 
seconded by Mr. Thingummy that,” and then he 
reads the motion, just as it was put by the proposer. 
“ All in favour please put up their hands. On the 
contrary. Carried.” 

Of course, things may not begin so smoothly* 
There may be someone who disagrees with the 
name or the objects. The chairman should then 
listen to any speeches, keeping them as short as 







276 Hobbies 

possible, and, if the objectors want to do so, they 
should be allowed to propose and second an amend¬ 
ment to the original proposal. This should be put 
to the meeting before the original proposal, because 
once the original proposal has been carried it cannot 
be altered. By the carrying of the original proposal 
the name, the objects of the club, and any limiting 
conditions, such as age of members that have been 
included in it, are fixed, and can only be altered 
by the wish of the majority of the club. 

The next business is to elect a small committee 
to get the club started. Do not be in a hurry to 
elect presidents and vice-presidents and captains 
and things like that. What you want to start is 
four or five earnest workers and an honorary secretary 
who really is keen on his job. They should be asked 
to draw up a set of rules for submitting to another 
general meeting in a week’s time, together with any 
suggestions they may care to make for the proper 
running of the club. 

The next job is to arrange your subscription, 
and appoint a treasurer. The honorary treasurer 
is an important man, quite as important as the 
secretary. He must be a businesslike fellow, whom 
you all trust absolutely. Make your subscription 
as small as you can, bearing in mind what you will 
have to buy, and whether you will have to hire a 
meeting room, playing ground, etc. 

Collect as many subscriptions at the preliminary 
meeting as you possibly can. There is nothing like 
striking whilst the iron is hot. It is a good thing 
for the newly elected treasurer, when briefly thanking 
the meeting for their confidence, to announce that 






Miscellaneous Hobbies 277 

he is prepared to take subscriptions right away, 
and that he will sit at the door when the meeting 
is over to “ collar the oof.” The treasurer should, 
from the first, make a point of giving a receipt from 
a stubbed receipt book for every penny he takes in, 
and demanding a receipt for every penny he pays 
out. That is the only way to keep the books straight. 

You are now well on the way. Your club is 
properly constituted, and when, at the second general 
meeting, the rules, based on those of some well- 
established club, are passed, you can get to work. 

If your club is for the playing of any games you 
will need a captain, whose duty it is to pick his team 
and instruct it and lead it to victory. The captain 
need not be the best player, though he should be 
good. He should be popular with the majority 
of members and yet strong. One thing is essential. 
The captain must be above suspicion of favouritism. 
Of course there will always be members who will 
criticize the captain adversely; but he should 
give such grumblers nothing to go on. Though to 
the rest of the club the captain should be a little 
king in all matters of team management, it will 
pay him to work hand in glove with the club com¬ 
mittee, of which he should be an “ ex-officio ” 
member, which means that he sits on the committee 
by reason of his office, and is not specially elected 
to the committee by the general meeting of the 
club. 

A useful little rule to have on your list is that 
the committee may “ co-opt ” members of the club 
to fill vacancies that may occur on the com¬ 
mittee. Such co-opted members should only hold 






278 Hobbies 

office until the next general meeting of the club. 
It is a useful thing to have general meetings twice 
a year. The members of the committee should 
be eleeted to office for a year. It is a really good 
thing to have a rule that no member of the com¬ 
mittee may serve for more than two years in suc¬ 
cession. This prevents the government of the 
club from getting into the hands of a few members 
who may not represent the best talent. To make 
provision for this a quarter of the committee, those 
with the least votes, should automatically retire at 
the end of the first year without the option of re- 
election. The committee will always retire at the 
end of a year of office, and those who are eligible 
and who wish to serve again may offer themselves 
for re-eleetion. 

The seeretary calls all meetings of the committee 
and the club. He should see that at least a week’s 
notice is given of all committee meetings, and ten 
days’ notice of all club meetings. He keeps the 
minute book, in whieh he writes an account of the 
proeeedings at all committee meetings and all general 
and extraordinary meetings. The minute book 
should be written up carefully from notes taken at 
the meetings. It is a good tip for the secretary 
to write up his minute book the day after the meet¬ 
ings if he hasn’t time to do it the same day. 
If it is left things are forgotten and trouble 
results. At every meeting, after the notice con¬ 
vening the meeting has been read, the chairman 
calls on the seeretary to read the minutes of the last 
meeting. If they are approved he signs them and 
they are then a legal record of what happened. 






Miscellaneous Hobbies 279 

The secretary’s job is not an easy one. He must 
be popular as well as businesslike, for he has to see 
that all the members are happy and contented. 
On the secretary a good deal of the club’s success 
depends. 

The treasurer works very much in the back¬ 
ground. Nobody pays much attention to him 
save when subscriptions become due; but his is 
a very important office for all that. We have already 
given some hints as to how he should run his job. 
He should keep all money, save a little for petty 
cash, in the bank, either the Post Office or a big bank, 
depending on the size of the club and the amount 
of money he has to handle. He should keep a 
book or books showing every penny that comes in 
and every penny that goes out. He should balance 
his accounts at least once a month, and keep the 
committee constantly informed as to how the finances 
are progressing. 

An auditor should be appointed from amongst 
the general members of the club. Two auditors 
are better than one. You cannot be too careful 
in dealing with money, particularly with other 
people’s money. At the end of the club year the 
auditors should prepare a balance-sheet showing 
exactly how the funds stand. 

The president of the club is often only a figure¬ 
head, but there is no harm in getting as handsome 
a figurehead as you can manage. It is a good plan 
to get a popular local gentleman to act in this capacity. 

The vice-presidents may be recruited from lesser 
lights and from members of the club who have done 
good work on the committee and whose interest 





28 o 


Hobbies 


you do not wish to lose when it comes to the time 
for them to retire without the option of re-election. 

This article has been written in general terms 
because, as we said at the beginning, all clubs are 
run on the same general lines. The smaller the club 
the less detail there will be to look after ; but even 
if it is a club of only ten or a dozen members it pays 
to stick rigidly to the rules. In a small club the 
secretary may also be the treasurer. The team 
captain or the club captain should have no other 
office. He has quite enough to do without bothering 
about business details. Stamp societies and clubs 
of that kind do not need captains. The chairman 
or president is usually the high muck-a-muck in 
such cases. 

The great thing about running a club is to find 
out your best workers and see that they have work 
to do. There are some fellows who like the honour 
of being an officer of a club but who are not prepared 
to work for the honour. That class of man you 
can do without. If you have any such specimens 
in office take the earliest opportunity of getting 
rid of them. The general members should remember 
that, if they think things are being done wrongly 
it does not serve any useful purpose to begin grousing 
and opening their mouths to all and sundry. The 
proper course is to talk quietly to members of the 
committee, and if that will not do the trick, and 
things are really wrong, to demand an extraordinary 
general meeting of the club. 


Printed in En^ano by G|i|SELL & Company, Limited, London, E C 4 

X 9 5 6 ^ ^50.83. 


















V. « 

^ - Z 






"^'O/o s a 

A' 0 N c „ 'f' ^ o * S ^'- 

VO c .0' ^ ^ ■ ■ '*' '<?* 

.■i - ^ 

■ i--' ' 


v" __ 

•“ <U '"•'■■‘a 

• .# 


' -iV ^ 

.0^ ^ <■' ' * ^ 

(V N -1 Vi 



.<fV » _ ^ ^ 

I . *C '' 0 * X v'\ 

^ jS^ 

■ %.ir v'S‘' ° X° 

y ^ r\ '‘~z^^ ” I 

> "^ '* '^ ° * » I A-^'" 

■ ‘^^°' '"'"‘f I- 

'jO^' ^ ® 

" 'o ~ ^ • *' 

- “f -xN 

- " 
h. V <1 j-%0 ^ 

'^, *,„o> O. *. 

^ ^ Y . „ , ^ , 

.'T *V^!?/v.“' '^' ,V. * 

c. >. ' \ ', 


^ * « I - ’ ■N'*’^ s •• , * 


' ' ''' . ' 

V 

~r \\' 

, • « 

C ^ ^ 

y ' ■ »/<f. "°' ''“V'' ,0N C , 

K = . 

" v: j^o o^ :, 

•- ■ o \ 


A^' ■f- 62. '>5 * -Ji 

^ ^ *“ z 'S^ 


•'bo'' 




♦ 

» ' '' 

. ., ,. *' ./• 

' ^ O »< '- .p '^.> ^*«y'- .^0 p,g <b 'OyY* .a ^ ■2?’' 



^ a 

rf. 4<^'7/J.^ '' 

<i> ■'*vy5~’ t, ,x ^■t-^jjr'^ ^ 

V r. ^ ’V 

o u/r^'^: aV ^ , c ^ 

vi« ^o^w"* A *^.r) '*' . 

'" .# .'"“■' %% * cO' '”'' ’s'""' 

,0^ 9?, A<^‘ '^Xr 


*^X 3 N 




z 

o 


^ _ V I fi ^ 0 ^ k'*' <\ s ^ ^ ^ * 

^ <5^^ .s\^ c ° ^ * * p.*> <i ' ' ® ^ ’’^ 

7^ •-" ^ ® \'^ -r V , B i_JvM> O 


^.;'%.'’*oT^’'.d’ \ 

'- -- o'- ^''O, '■^. 

* /\. -r. - . t. Z 


p y (, r 

Ol. A/ lA ‘ 


J * V. 


• 

c^ y 

.A, 

<D 

^ c « ’ 

^4* 


^ X O 

•< ^0\ 
ie« 

ii\»u' yj» iT 



A- y '^\vCV5^ ^ 

s .,'X' P y p 

*Y> <»r 


C.- 




y ' 0 o V '\ 

<?*. AV . 0 n c 






>r ^ 

' ‘°'-'\ *' " * V^ » ' " ” * " ' " V 

' ^'■'' Q '^ir> v\^'’ '*^ c^ •%■ iA^^PA) tY- 

° 'V ° •■v'^ 

* * '■ .0^^ ‘ V C » ~ ^ * *■'' 0-^^' • ' ' • • 

't p >'^ p „s>ssc^ y r'^' '' -^- 

L ' 7 'a dr - ^0 o 

I , rf’ '~<^//iV'^ ^ \\ 



i; V • J 




^ 0 A 


.V ^ " A c^ \ ' 

v^’’ :&K‘ : 


^ V" c <■ - X'^y. - •', <-y' ’>; .. 

^ood V =«;^ 

''^'^ •C .vL^ ✓ ^« A <r' 4- 

- *■''” o^\-„,\. *“■' 

O- P 




■» 0 




.\ V . 

:K / 

O y *b c 

- .V 

S '' ,4^ <y ' o p k'^ a ^ 

r<y ^ y 

V^ - 


.V '«' ^ C‘ 

- ^ c,*^’ "c^^yA« A> ,v 

y% •. 


















